Daniel Wolfram
Ever wondered what a Canadian Thanksgiving looks like? Canadian experts spill the secrets on the reason behind the early Thanksgiving date and what they eat.
Happy Thanksgiving! Canadian Thanksgiving, that is.
Today is the second Monday of October, which means that almost everywhere in Canada, it is a celebration and a national holiday.
But what are the traditional Thanksgiving Day rituals? How does it differ from the American Thanksgiving? And most importantly, what do Canadians eat on Thanksgiving?
Winter comes sooner
Before we get to answer the questions, there needs to be an explanation for why Canadian Thanksgiving is a month and a half earlier than its neighbor.
The reason boils down to geography and the changing weather. Winter arrives sooner in Canada, forcing local farmers to wrap up their crops well before November rolls around.
“Winter comes a lot earlier in Canada, so our fall harvest happens earlier, too,” says Andrew McIntosh, editor at The Canadian Encyclopedia, to CNN.
Parliament officially fixed the national holiday as the second Monday of October in 1957. According to McIntosh, lawmakers wanted a stable date when “the weather is still amenable to outdoor activities.”
Thanksgiving used to shift between October and December, before the government found a permanent date.
What is on the plate?
So what does a Canadian Thanksgiving meal look like? Well, American culinary habits have heavily influenced the Canadian feast. Foods like turkey, gravy, squash, rolls, and pumpkin pie that are a mainstay in an American household during Thanksgiving are likewise very popular in Canada.
“Canadians very much appropriated the traditional Thanksgiving dinner from America,” McIntosh notes. That does not mean that local cultures are not able to put their own spin on their Thanksgiving meals.
For example, Ukrainian communities across western regions prefer perogies and cabbage rolls, while many Indigenous families routinely serve fried bannock alongside traditional native ingredients.
The dessert table is where Canadians really get to show off their culture. Westerners enjoy Nanaimo bars, Ontarians love butter tarts, and eastern provinces prefer warm apple pies over standard pumpkin pies, according to McIntosh.
Divided feast days
Not every region joins in the festivities. In French-speaking Quebec, most locals ignore the day altogether because early celebrations carried strong Protestant and royalist ties that historically pushed Catholic residents away.
“We had Thanksgiving as a day off from school and never really understood why,” recalls a Montreal resident of Chinese descent, highlighting how foreign the tradition feels in Quebec.
Meanwhile, Indigenous communities view the day through a unique lens. McIntosh points out that while some historic tensions remain, many Indigenous families embrace the gathering as a celebration of pre-colonial native foods.
