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The First Thanksgiving

Who was first: Canada or US? The dubious story of Martin Frobisher

Oct 26, 2006 Katrien Vander Straeten

Who can claim the first Thanksgiving? Taking seriously the nature of the holiday as a harvest feast disqualifies the Canadian "Frobisher Thanksgiving" of 1578.

Thanksgiving is celebrated in the United States on the last Thursday of November and in Canada on the second Monday in October.

Why the discrepancy? Both holidays have their roots in the harvest festival. Because the harvest in the more northern and frigid Canada comes earlier, also thanksgiving is due earlier. But Canada may also have had the first Thanksgiving on the North American continent… depending on how you define “Thanksgiving”.

Of course the question of who was first, the States or Canada, is easy: neither. Thanksgiving was introduced in North America by Europeans. They had been holding Thanksgiving as a harvest festival for centuries, and in one form or another it was and is a common tradition in all agricultural societies. Our giving thanks for a “cornucopia” (literally “horn of plenty”) comes from the Ancient Greek harvest custom of filling a goat’s horn with fruit and grain, going back to the 5th century BC.

It is exactly the nature of Thanksgiving as a harvest festival that is at stake when establishing priority.

Popular opinion has it that “the first Thanksgiving in North America” was held in Canada, in 1578, 43 years before the Plymouth Pilgrims. The credit goes to the first explorers of the Northwest Passage and (fool’s) gold miner, the Englishman Martin Frobisher (1535-1594). Frobisher supposedly gave formal thanks after his safe arrival in what is now called Newfoundland.

What is wrong with this story? First, some details. Frobisher’s doomed mining colony was situated on Baffin Island, north of Newfoundland. And in The Unknown Shore, Robert Ruby also alleges that, upon landfall in August of 1578, it was the Rev. Robert Woolfall who gave thanks.

More importantly, this “thanks” came not in the form of a gathering around a festive meal, but a hurried prayer. This is not problematic, for the custom of Thanksgiving was and still is, for many, a thanks to God for a bountiful harvest. But there’s the rub: there was no harvest. The meal of salt beef, biscuits and peas came out of the ships’ barrels.

So sorry, Canadian people, but in my opinion this does not constitute Thanksgiving. And for the same reason, neither does 1710 (when Port Royal, Nova Scotia, celebrated the return of the town to the English), or 1763 (when Halifax gave thanks for the end of the Seven Years War)... But by then, of course, the Puritans and the Wampanoag had already given their thanks, in 1621, in Plymouth, New England.

Thanksgiving dates Canada:

  • 2006: Monday, 9 October
  • 2007: Monday, 8 October
  • 2008: Monday, 13 October
  • 2009: Monday, 12 October

Thanksgiving dates US:

  • 2006: Thursday, 23 November
  • 2007: Thursday, 22 November
  • 2008: Thursday, 27 November
  • 2009: Thursday, 26 November

More articles on Thanksgiving in Suite101:

The copyright of the article The First Thanksgiving in Entertaining is owned by Katrien Vander Straeten. Permission to republish The First Thanksgiving in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
Photograph horn of plenty, Eileen Mirsberger (East Troy Basketry) Photograph horn of plenty
   
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Dec 9, 2008 12:21 AM
Guest :
Must Americans and Canadians always try to compete? So now we have to decide whose Thanksgiving came first and which one is better? Give me a break!
The truth of the matter is, Thanksgiving was not invented by either Americans or Canadians but was a European custom brought over by the English and French settlers to America and Canada alike.
In Canada, the first to celebrate this custom was Frobisher in 1578. He was followed by many other settlers in the next 150 years who offered the same celebration of thanks, usually in connection with the harvest,in different ways. In America, the first celebration was in Plymouth in 1621, to commemorate the Pilgrims' arrival on North American soil.
In the 1800s many Americans crossed the border into Canada and brought with them the custom of their own Thanksgiving celebration, merging with the Canadian custom of the same name. And in 1872 Thanksgiving was proclaimed a National Canadian Holiday, evolving over the next 150 years into the holiday we celebrate today.
To say that Frobisher's giving of thanks is not good enough because there was no harvest and it was just a 'hurried prayer' I think totally misses the point. The whole spirit of Thanksgiving is to gather around a meal (whether it be only salt beef and biscuits)and thank God for the prosperity and fortune in one's life. The Pilgrims did the same in their own way a few years later.
But to say that one came first, and was better than the other,I think is totally pointless and unnecessary. Canadian and American Thanksgiving began as two versions of the same European agricultural custom, which then merged to form a common holiday and is now celebrated on separate days. That's it, period.
Dec 9, 2008 12:22 AM
Guest :
Must Americans and Canadians always try to compete? So now we have to decide whose Thanksgiving came first and which one is better? Give me a break!
The truth of the matter is, Thanksgiving was not invented by either Americans or Canadians but was a European custom brought over by the English and French settlers to America and Canada alike.
In Canada, the first to celebrate this custom was Frobisher in 1578. He was followed by many other settlers in the next 150 years who offered the same celebration of thanks, usually in connection with the harvest,in different ways. In America, the first celebration was in Plymouth in 1621, to commemorate the Pilgrims' arrival on North American soil.
In the 1800s many Americans crossed the border into Canada and brought with them the custom of their own Thanksgiving celebration, merging with the Canadian custom of the same name. And in 1872 Thanksgiving was proclaimed a National Canadian Holiday, evolving over the next 150 years into the holiday we celebrate today.
To say that Frobisher's giving of thanks is not good enough because there was no harvest and it was just a 'hurried prayer' I think totally misses the point. The whole spirit of Thanksgiving is to gather around a meal (whether it be only salt beef and biscuits)and thank God for the prosperity and fortune in one's life. The Pilgrims did the same in their own way a few years later.
But to say that one came first, and was better than the other,I think is totally pointless and unnecessary. Canadian and American Thanksgiving began as two versions of the same European agricultural custom, which then merged to form a common holiday and is now celebrated on separate days. That's it, period.
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