Why is Canadian Thanksgiving earlier than the U.S.?

While Canadians enjoy the turkey, stuffing, gravy and all the fixings in October, Americans south of the border still have more than a month to wait before they dive in.

Why is it they aren’t held at the same time? I asked historian and host of the Canadian History Ehx podcast, Craig Baird.

“I think it does come down to the harvest with them and with it being later. Obviously, southern states, you’re not going to have winter like we do. So, in Canada, because our harvest is much earlier and we have a much shorter growing season, it really comes down to us having Thanksgiving much earlier because it is a celebration of the harvest,” said Baird.

“Even the First Nations, before the Europeans ever arrived, were celebrating a form of Thanksgiving that was also the same thing, giving thanks for the end of the summer, the autumn and then looking at the coming winter.”

Thanksgiving dinner. (Nathan Coleman/The Weather Network)

Thanksgiving was even celebrated first in Canada prior to it being an event in the U.S, when Martin Frobisher celebrated surviving his voyage to North America.

“Obviously. the American Thanksgiving, the pilgrims and the [Indigenous Peoples] coming together is the most famous, but in Canada, we actually predate that. In 1578, Sir Martin Frobisher was the first European to celebrate Thanksgiving in North America in 1578,” said Baird.

Samuel de Champlain helped bring cranberries into the mix in the early 1600s.

“He celebrated Thanksgiving with the First Nations and they introduced him to cranberries, which they called little red apples because they didn’t know what cranberries were. [Well], at least the French didn’t know,” said Baird.

That is something to think about as your enjoying your cranberry sauce this Thanksgiving.