Canada vs US!
As you know our house is 400m (437 yards) North of the US border.
The last couple of weeks, there has been some UNUSUAL (migration) activity!
I asked if she would like to come to dinner, but she declined saying she was going to her sister's flock by Rock Creek for the weekend.
That got me thinking about Thanksgiving.
Being from Iran, I was surprised about the differences between Canadian and American Thanksgiving. OK, this holiday was first celebrated by the settlers in Canada! (40 years earlier in 1578 by Frobisher. BUT in reality, it has been celebrated by the indigenous people of North America. They were celebrating the harvest for THOUSANDS of years and in both Canada and the US, they shared their Thanksgiving with the new settlers.
So what are the differences that I have noticed:
| Canada | United States of America |
|---|---|
| Not a big celebration. As a matter of fact it is NOT a holiday in 4 provinces. | CELEBRATION! |
| Monday (and you have to go to work the next day!) Our official day was chosen in 1957 | The 4th Thursday in November Thursday (You get a 5 day Weekend to recover from the Turkey dinner). The official day was chosen in 1939 |
| It’s a Family thing but not much travel is involved. | FAMILY Holiday and one of the biggest travel days of the year. |
| Spicy Pumpkin Pie and Stuffing is mostly bread | Sweet Pumpkin Pie and Stuffing varies from oysters, to corn bread, etc. |
| CFL (Canadian Football League) Double Header!!!! | Football, Football and MORE Football |
| No Parades | Macy's in New York! HUGE! We watch it |
| No special shopping day…some stores are (gasp) closed | Black Friday |
Now for the Thankfuls!
I am thankful that we live in a nice warm house and that our feral furrend Merle, has a heater in his cat house. We have a Mom who makes sure that we get terrific food and treats and toys and nip! We have toys to play with, special sun puddle spots on BOTH sides of the house (when we get sun) and we each have our own bed (though Jo Jo and Kozmo mostly sleep with Mom). Our Vet who takes care of us, our neighbor who gives us treats for catching mice and moles in his garden and
We are thankful for YOU, our dear online furrends! We love to visit you and we love it when you visit us.
For our American Furrends, we hope you have a really wonderful Thanksgiving!
For our friends who live in wonderful places all over the world, we hope you have a marvellously Happy Day!
We are Thankful for you ALL!!!
We are pawticipating in Thankful Thursday at Brian's Home! Please click on their badge to be taken to Thankful Central!
I think I like the Canadian version
ReplyDeleteWe think both versions sound pretty nice. Maybe the U.S. one gets the nod, because of the extra days off, though. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, sweet pals. We are so grateful for you, too! XO
Your thankfuls are wonderful- we all have soooo much to be thankful for! HUGS!
ReplyDeletewe grinned about the turkeys ... but we wish a good day to all who celebrate today... we have no holiday, it seems our nation forgot to be thankful for some things...sigh...
ReplyDeleteI've always wanted to see the differences between Canadian and American Thanksgiving laid out! The only thing we don't do is anything involving football. ("Yuck!" says my human). Thank YOU for being here and being our pals.
ReplyDeleteThe Canadian version is much more low key and would be my preference. We don't celebrate Thanksgiving at all, but that doesn't stop me from being thankful for all my friends.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the graphic....yes Canada celebrates "quietly" vs. how the USA plays it up but the one thing we ALL have in common is a focus on THANKFUL. We are thankful for you and everyone we know in any way in any part of the world. Friendship is a worldwide joy we can all share.
ReplyDeleteHugs, Pam and Teddy
Personally, I wish all of the stores would remain closed so families could spend time together on this wonderful holiday. Happy Thursday!
ReplyDeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteWell, that was interesting - actually I had only yesterday looked up the whole thing about Black Friday as it has become an idiocy here in the UK and I thought it was just invented by the Big A to make sure they topped up their gazillions before financial year end. Turns out it has a longer history in the USA for different reasons and this short article lays it out nicely. This means it pertains specifically to the US and I am right to be irked that the Big A has decided to use it as a tool to conquer the world... gripe over. I'm with Molly on looking back to the true purpose of Thanksgiving!!! (Same applies to Christmas...) Gee I'm a winge today. Thanks for the great post!!! YAM xx
Thanks for the Thanksgiving update. It's interesting to see how our two countries celebrate. Personally here in the USA I'm not fond Black Friday. It's a human zoo that isn't fit for an animal. And a lot of folks do get a four-day weekend but there were plenty of us when I worked that Friday was a work day. I really didn't mind but my co-workers who wanted to shop were always upset. I'm just not a big buyer so I didn't really care. Let me know if a lot of our turkeys cross the border so that they would not be on the table today. We are thankful for all the blogs that post their wonderful pet pictures and stories.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lynn and Precious! This year, we are so grateful for so many, many things, but you guys are at the top of our list. We are so thankful to have you as furrends. Happy Thanksgiving!
DeleteWe didn't realize Thanksgiving isn't all that big of a deal in Canada. Here it gets bigger all the time. The day after didn't used to be a holiday, although lots of people took it off. Now pretty much everyone has the day off. We are thankful for the four day weekend! We don't do black Friday, just enjoy the day with fun stuff, probably go for a long walk with friends or something.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading the differences and similarities of the two Countries Thanksgiving. I am very grateful for my CB friends and my family and friends here at home.
ReplyDeletegreat idea to show these side by side.. LOVE the turkey and cat on the borders... bob says you can throw a stone across to US.. I read all the comments just to see what people said about TG day.. Since I am 77 years old, this is my 77th TG in USA deep south, which does make a difference from TG in the North East..there are many differences in different parts of US in each holiday.
ReplyDeleteMy family and Bob's family and most of the people I know, have never had a 4 day weekend. common laborers only get Thanksgiving day off, Black Friday if anyone wants it off, has to be a paid holiday... growing up our schools were closed for TG day and Friday and back on Monday, now the schools have a whole week off. of course now retired we have every day off which means we celebrate every day as a holiday... None of our familys have ever traveled any where for TG, past or present.
USA is famous for blowing every thing we do out of all proportion to whatever it is.. butt i am thankful on thankful day and thankful i live in USA
That was interesting info about Thanksgiving, we enjoyed it. Those are darn good thankfuls too and Thanks for joining our Thankful Thursday Blog Hop and Happy Thanksgiving from all of us!
ReplyDeleteOMCs Marv I had no idea you were just a hop, skip and a jump from the border of the US of A.
ReplyDeleteGolly we are ALMOST close enough to borrow a cup of sugar. MOL BOL LOL
Hugs Cecilia
Have a blessed and beautiful day!
ReplyDelete• ★ Happy ★* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
ReplyDelete•。★ Thanksgiving ★。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚｜ 田田 ｜門｜ ˚
* Grateful ♫•*¨* Blessed♪♫•*¨*
Scritches all around, a smooch to Marv and a hug to mom. ♥
We learned a lot from your post today. Even though our Thanksgiving holidays may be different we all can agree that we have lots to be thankful for, especially all our blogging friends.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely post (and much "new" to us for which we say "thanks") ... but above all, on this Thanksgiving day, we will add that we are thankful you are our friends.
ReplyDeleteI love that analysis of the two Thanksgivings, we are a bit over the top here in the US, aren't we? Oh well, as long as there is lots of food we're good. Happy Thanksgiving friends that are 437 yards from US!
ReplyDeleteWe are not far from the border either, but not quite as close as you are!
ReplyDeleteThe Hubby has distant family in Ontario, and we grew up listening to CBC on Channel 9, where all the good hockey was shown.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I grew up in Niagara Falls NY, and Ontario was just across the river. We often watched Canadian channels. Even though we were so close to Canada, we didn't really know Canadian TG was any different than our own.
ReplyDeleteCharlee: "We don't do a big Thanksgiving Day here, and we definitely don't do football."
ReplyDeleteChaplin: "In fact I'm not sure our Mama and Dada actually understand how this whole Thanksgiving thing is supposed to work!"
How interesting, both versions sound nice ! Happy Thanksgiving ! Purrs
ReplyDeleteI never knew you were so close to the US border. Did you know that we can see Canada from our island? If you were a really good swimmer, you probably could swim there. MOL! The differences between our Thanksgiving holidays are very interesting. ~Ernie
ReplyDeleteMy life is good. Everyday is a day filled with people and things to be thankful for. It is good to have a special day set aside to remind all of us to be thankful.
ReplyDeleteWe hd no idea you lived so close to the border. Great post, thanks for the great analysis of the two celebrations. Hope you have a lovely day.
ReplyDeleteHappy and Blessed Thanksgiving.
Woos - Lightning, Misty, and Timber
wow I am Canadian and you taught me something! I didn't know it was not a holiday in some provinces!!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting comparisons. I am thankful for your friendship. XO
ReplyDeleteThankfuls are wonderful. Happy Thanksgiving my friend! Wonderful and Lovely Post dear! xoxo
ReplyDeleteAllurerage
Thetrendybride
The U.S. celebrates EVERYTHING no matter what. We do, however, only have a 4-day holiday. Monday is work as usual. We're thankful for you, our Canadian furrends, eh!
ReplyDeleteOops! Mom has fumble fingers! She mentioned 4 not 5.
DeleteVery interesting as we don't celebrate Thanksgiving here.
DeleteWonderfully informative post about the Canadian and American 'thanksgiving.' ~ always creative ~ Xo
ReplyDeleteLiving in the moment,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
We celebrate both of these special days. We used to try and go there for the Canadian Thanksgiving when our boys were small, a special day to visit their Opa and Oma and other relatives.
ReplyDeleteI really do miss the quiet times that is Thanksgiving in Canada.
There is an awful lot of hoopla here...thankfully our Church has a service on Thanksgiving Morning to help us recall all of our blessings and not to take them for granted. It also helps to offset all the commercialism as well.
Thanks for the information about these two days.
I didn't know those differences between the two Thanksgivings...thank you!
ReplyDeleteI stay put to my difference, we don't have Thanksgiving here...MOL...but we have to admit that we love to celebrate it with both sides ;) Extra Pawkisses for all of you🐾😽💞
ReplyDelete