Happy Thanksgiving

/ SueBC

Thanksgiving DinnerToday is Thanksgiving in Canada. As we are to the north in North America, our harvests are generally earlier, so maybe that’s why we have an October Thanksgiving.

Yesterday we had our family dinner — only the four of us, but we still do the whole shebang. Of course I forgot to take a picture, so my table from two years ago will have to do the job. Almost the same, except that I did the Brussels sprouts with garlic and pancetta — a little salty, but tasty.

The first Thanksgiving in Canada was apparently held in 1578 by the explorer Martin Frobisher who was looking for the Northwest Passage. He held the feast to celebrate his crew’s safe arrival in the New World.

Singing of a different explorer looking for the Northwest Passage, here is Canadian singer-songwriter Stan Rogers with his song, “Northwest Passage”.

Rogers died tragically at the age of 33 in 1983 while returning from a folk festival. The plane made an emergencty landing when smoke was detected. During evacuation, the rush of oxygen into the plane caused a flash fire killing the 23 passengers still aboard. Aviation regulations were changed as a result, with “new requirements to install smoke detectors in lavatories, strip lights marking paths to exit doors, and increased firefighting training and equipment for crew became standard across the industry, while regulations regarding evacuation were also updated” so that all aircraft could be evacuated within 90 seconds. (Widepedia – Air Canada Flight 797)

And Stan Rogers left us with a legacy of music, which his brother and son carry on to this day.

Happy Thanksgiving to those who are celebrating.

19 thoughts on “Happy Thanksgiving”

  1. Happy Thanksgiving to you Sue and your family! Hope you are well and the weather in Vancouver is cooler and more fall like than in Washington DC/Virginia.
    Thank you for the video as well. It was such a tragedy that he died so young.

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  2. Happy Thanksgiving to you! I guess Canadian Thanksgiving isn’t so fraught with “first contact” stories as US Thanksgiving is. Oddly it coincides today with Columbus Day a/k/a Indigenous People’s Day. At least most of us can enjoy the turkey!

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    • Thank you! Yes, different origins. Yeah I noticed that coincidence of dates — so is Indigenous People’s Day essentially the flip side/new name of Columbia Day? And do you have a special meal then as well?

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      • It used to be one of those subversive things — resist Columbus Day — but it seems to be catching on. Wisconsin has its first one by proclamation this year. Otherwise it’s just a federal holiday and everyone grouses because there is no mail (except the mail carriers, obvs). As far as I know there’s no special food. I have mixed feelings about it because probably half the country thinks its job is done if we just change the name of the holiday, and the other half will resent that we’re being asked to think about our history differently, and will cling to a holiday that was never that popular for that reason. Today is also the first day of the Jewish festival of Sukkot — maybe I’ll stick to celebrating that 🙂

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        • We don’t have an Indigenous Peoples day, but there is a lot of action relating to the report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. But again, is it just token action? Some say that there can be no “reconciliation” when there was never a good relationship to begin with. Still, public events, like before The Lodge at the VIFF, often begin with an acknowledgement of being on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples. I hadn’t heard of Sukkot before — enjoy the celebration!

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