Monday, October 7, 2019

Thanksgiving ~ A Time to Give Thanks

Nature's brush has painted many neighbouring trees
in golds and and carmine reds. How beautiful!

David Gilbert recently submitted a scene to our local Spectator
of spectacular woodlands painted in yellows and orange.
Blue skies dipped to a passive road where shadowed in black
were parents, child and dog enjoying Nature's handiwork.
Predominant in this scene, was the following Nature message:
A peaceful walk in the fall
Shows a story to us all.
Nature tells without a word
Seasons change with flights of birds.
Sunny days shorten still
Warmer nights replaced with chill
Wistful winds of crisp cool air
Leaves of colour everywhere
Flowers rest and hide their bloom
Safe for winter in their tomb
Until new day sleeps the land
The winter shall have its stand.
But for now, the show remains
With us walking on this autumn day,

Thanksgiving (Canada)
Sometimes called Canadian Thanksgiving,
distinguishes it from the American holiday of the same name.
Our Thanksgiving celebrates the harvest and other blessings of the past year.

On January 31, 1957, the Governor General of Canada, Vincent Massey, issued a proclamation stating:
A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest
with which Canada has been blessed ~ to be observed on the second Monday of October.

Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in most of Canada, with the exceptions
being the Atlantic provinces of Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador
and New Brunswick ~ where it is an optional holiday.
Companies that are regulated by the federal government,
(such as those in the telecommunications and banking sectors)
recognize the holiday regardless of its provincial status.

As a liturgical festival, Thanksgiving corresponds to the English and continental European harvest with churches decorated with cornucopias, corn, wheat sheaves and other harvest bounty. English and European hymns are sung on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend.

The Canadian Football League has usually held a national televised Thanksgiving Day Classic. It is one of 2 weeks in which the league plays on Monday afternoons.

Kitchener-Waterloo Octoberfest holds a Thanksgiving parade on the holiday broadcast on CTV. The parade consists of floats...civic figures in the region...local performance troupes...and marching bands.

Canadian Thanksgiving coincides with the observance in the United States of Columbus Day and the American Indigenous Peoples' Day. As such, American towns with high levels of Canadian tourism will often hold their fall festivals over Thanksgiving /Columbus Day weekend

History: According to some historians, the first celebration of Thanksgiving in North America occurred during the 1578 voyage of Martin Frobisher from England in search of the Northwest Passage. His third voyage, to the Frobisher Bay area of Baffin Island in the present Canadian Territory of Nunavut, set out with the intention of starting a small settlement. His fleet of 15 ships was outfitted with men, materials and and provisions. However, the loss of one of his ships through contact with ice and freak storms, which at times, scattered the fleet. On meeting again at their anchorage in Frobisher Bay...Mayster Wolfall, a learned man (appointed by Her Majety Counsel to be their minister and preacher, made unto them a godly sermon, exhorting them especially to to be thankful to God for their strange and miraculous deliverance in those dangerous places...”
They celebrated communion and the celebration of divine mystery,
was the first sign, scale and confirmation of Christ's name, death and passion
ever known in all these quarters.

If You Want Happiness...
for an hour, take a nap;
for a day, go fishing,
for a week, take a vacation,
for a month, get married,
for a year, inherit a fortune,
all your life, it will truly come
by helping others.

The Greatest Gift to any human being
is to give to another ~ the gift of a good example.
(Unknown Author)

Author: Merle Baird-Kerr, October 6, 2019
To respond: mbairdkerr@cogeco.ca

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