Canadian Thanksgiving…
Like the United States, Canada gives thanks for its good fortune once a year and eats itself silly with turkey and mashed potatoes.
Whereas in the US, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, in Canada the second Monday of October is a statutory, or public, holiday. This year, Canadian Thanksgiving falls on Monday, Oct 11, 2010.
The Canadian Thanksgiving holiday is officially observed on the second Monday of October, however people generally get together for their Thanksgiving Meal on any one of the three days of this three-day holiday weekend.
Thanksgiving weekend is a popular time for Canadians to gather with family, so more people than usual are traveling on that weekend.
Canada does not have a big shopping day after Thanksgiving the way the United States does. “Boxing Day”, December 26th, is the equivalent in terms of sales and shopping extravaganzas in Canada.
Happy Thanksgiving to All my Canadian Demonstrators & Friends!!!!
Columbus Day is also celebrated today.
Contrary to popular belief, most educated Europeans in Columbus’ day understood that the world was round, but they did not yet know that the Pacific Ocean existed. As a result, Columbus and his contemporaries assumed that only the Atlantic lay between Europe and the riches of the East Indies.
Origins of Columbus Day
A U.S. national holiday since 1937, Columbus Day commemorates the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the New World on October 12, 1492. The Italian-born explorer had set sail two months earlier, backed by the Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. He intended to chart a western sea route to China, India and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia; instead, he landed in the Bahamas, becoming the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland during the 10th century.
Later that month, Columbus sighted Cuba and believed it was mainland China; in December the expedition found Hispaniola Haiti today, which he though might be Japan. There, he established Spain’s first colony in the Americas. In March 1493, the explorer returned to Spain in triumph, bearing gold, spices and “Indian” captives. He crossed the Atlantic several more times before his death in 1506; by his third journey, he realized that he hadn’t reached Asia but instead had stumbled upon a continent previously unknown to Europeans.
Thanks for looking!
Stampin’ Hugs,
No comments yet.