Did you think you knew the origin of Thanksgiving in Canada? You may be in for some surprises. Of course, Thanksgiving is primarily an American national holiday, celebrated every year on the last Thursday of November since 1863. It generally refers to the feast organized by the Pilgrim Fathers in the autumn of 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Having endured a harsh first winter, the survivors were helped by the Indigenous peoples who taught them how to effectively grow corn and other local produce. By celebrating this first bountiful harvest, they gave thanks to God for preserving them, while also thanking the Indigenous peoples for their assistance. Today, Thanksgiving is a secular holiday, where families gather to celebrate the blessings of the past year. At their table is served the traditional turkey, a true national symbol, whose wild form is only found in the United States and Mexico.

The Order of Good Times

In Canada, Thanksgiving is also celebrated, at least in English-speaking families, on the second Monday of October since 1957. Does it refer to the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving in 1621? Certainly not. Canadians locate their first Thanksgiving in the year 1578 in what is now Frobisher Bay, in the southeast of Nunavut. The English explorer Martin Frobisher, during his third voyage to the Arctic, organized a ceremony where his crew members were invited to give thanks to God for having saved them from those dangerous waters. But in those inhospitable lands, the men had to make do, as a good meal, with only the sailor’s ration, which consisted mainly of salted beef, biscuits, and dried peas. Therefore, in the absence of a celebration of a fruitful harvest, was this first Thanksgiving really one?

Rather than the Frobisher feast, the Acadians of Canada prefer to highlight a memorable episode from the history of the nascent colony of Port-Royal, in Acadia, predating the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving in 1621. In the autumn of 1606, Samuel de Champlain established the ceremony of the Order of Good Times, where the elite of the colony consumed daily a bounty of fresh meats and fish at the festive table of Sieur de Poutrincourt. After the terrible winter of 1604-1605 on Saint Croix Island, where nearly half of the men had perished from scurvy, due to a lack of fresh produce, it was essential to inject a great dose of optimism and to guard against the harshness of winter. Unprecedentedly on North American soil, the colonists were already turning the soil to cultivate their gardens, ensuring that wheat and bread were in abundance.

The Order of Good Times exuded good cheer in Port-Royal. Bread was offered to the Indigenous people and their chiefs were invited to the ceremony. At the evening banquet, the master of ceremonies for the day gave thanks to God for the blessings of the day. And even though the wild turkey had no chance of appearing at the table of Mr. de Poutrincourt, as it had never ventured into the maritime provinces of Canada, the ceremony seemed to resemble a true Thanksgiving.

Header image: The Order of Good Time, established by Samuel de Champlain (Painting by C.W. Jefferys, public domain).

Jean-Marc Agator
Paris, France

Sources

Websites: Pilgrim Hall Museum (Thanksgiving) ; L’Encyclopédie canadienne (Action de grâce au Canada, Le premier Jour d’Action de grâce en Amérique du Nord).
Johnston, Harry ; Pioneers in Canada ; Blackie & Son Limited, London and Glasgow, 1912, page 46 (ration des marins lors des voyages de Martin Frobisher).
Emont, Bernard ; L’Ordre de Bon Temps et les influences festives et littéraires de la Renaissance ; Les Publications Québec français, Numéro 142, été 2006.