In Canada Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October. Unlike the American tradition of remembering the Pilgrims and Indians, Canadians give thanks for a successful harvest. For the most part, the harvest season falls earlier in Canada compared to the United States due to the simple fact that Canada is further north.

The first Canadian Thanksgiving occured more than 40 years prior to the first in the United States. An English explorer named Martin Frobisher had been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient. He did not succeed, but he did establish a settlement in North America and in 1578, in what is now called Newfoundland, he held a formal ceremony to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This is considered the first Canadian Thanksgiving.

Like in the United States, a thanksgiving feast was not an annual event for the early settlers. In fact, through the years, the date of the celebration was changed several times. Then in January 1957, Parliament announced that Thanksgiving would be celebrated on the second Monday in October and would be “a day of general thanksgiving to almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed."

During the American Revolution many Americans remained loyal to England and moved to Canada, bringing the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving with them...thus, the two countries share many traditions.