If you’ve lived in the United States your whole life, it may not have occurred to you that Thanksgiving is not celebrated in other parts of the world. I hate to break it to you, but that wonderful third Sunday of November where we get to stuff ourselves full of delicious food, because—as Jess put it on last week’s episode of New Girl—pilgrims couldn’t learn to harvest for themselves, is just a normal day for other people.
Still don’t believe me? Let’s consult the Wikipedia gods.
Oh, forgive me. I didn’t include the picture.
Okay, okay. So Thanksgiving is observed in other countries, just not on the same day, in the same way, or for the same reasons as the United States. So what exactly do these days of the giving of thanks look like in other countries?*
In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated much like that in the United States. It is to celebrate the first harvest that was taken. The only difference is that the pilgrims didn’t make the first harvest in Canada. A fellow named Martin Frosbisher actually arrived before the pilgrims, and conducted a feast of his very own. Canada’s turkey day celebration is held on second Monday of October. It has an earlier date is due to the fact that Canada gets a lot colder much sooner than the U.S., making the time where one would typically harvest earlier as well.
The small island of Grenada in the West Indies holds Thanksgiving every year on Oct. 25. It is to commemorate the fall of the Communist regime by the hands of the United States and other Caribbean countries on that day in 1983. The Communist regime had overthrown their original government a few years earlier in 1979. Democratic elections were put into action the following year.
Soldier in Grenada standing in front of anti-communist sign in 1983.
Liberia’s Thanksgiving is celebrated on the first Thursday of November. It was actually created by slaves who returned to Africa after being freed in the United States. The slaves spent so much time on American soil that they adopted the traditions and holidays celebrated there.
The Netherlands celebrates Thanksgiving on the same day as the United States, but for a different reason. That reason being the pilgrims stopped there and stayed for about 11 years before even coming to America! The holiday is set in place to commemorate the kindness the pilgrims received during their time in The Netherlands. A service is held in the main church in Leiden.
The Pieterskerk, the main church in Leinden in which Thanksgiving celebrations are held.
Harvest festivals and Thanksgivings are closely related. Germany holds a harvest festival called Erntedankfest, on the first Sunday in October. Not to be confused with Oktoberfest, which is held around the same time, this festival is a very religious holiday celebrated in churches across the country.
The Chinese also have a harvest festival held around September of October called the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. Mooncakes are a staple during this holiday as well as good times with families or lovers.
Decorations for the Mid-Autummn Moon Festival.
There are several other similar holidays existing in Korea, Ghana, and Japan that commemorate the harvest, but the single thing all of these holidays have in common is that they stand as reminder to give thanks for what has been provided for us. Whether that be gratitude for the food the Earth has blessed us with, or gratitude for family and friends, it’s important to remember that none of these things were ever required by anyone or anything to be given to us. The mere fact we have them is a miracle in itself.
*Although Wikipedia was used as comic relief, Wikipedia was not used as a source for the rest of the article, if you’re all anti-Wikipedia.
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