1. Thanksgiving in Canada Ta r g e t a u d i e n c e : E n s i n o F u n d a m e n t a l 2 “ A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed … to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October.” On January 31, 1957, the Canadian Parliament proclaimed: Thanksgiving Day is an annual holiday to give thanks for the things a person has at the close of the harvest season. It corresponds to the English and continental European Harvest festival. The churches are decorated with cornucopias, pumpkins, corn and wheat sheaves. The actual Thanksgiving holiday is on a Monday but Canadians might eat their Thanksgiving meal on any day of the three-day weekend. Thanksgiving is often celebrated with family; it is also often a time for weekend getaways. Martin Frobisher was an explorer who tried to find a northern passage to the Orient. In 1578 he held a formal ceremony to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This feast is considered by many to be the first Thanksgiving celebration in North America. Thanksgiving was first observed in 1799 but did not occur every year. After the American Revolution, American refugees who remained loyal to Great Britain moved from the United States and came to Canada and brought the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada.

2. The first Thanksgiving Day after Canadian Confederation was observed as a civic holiday on April 5, 1872. Starting in 1879 Thanksgiving Day was observed every year but the date was proclaimed annually and changed every year. After World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11 occurred. Ten years later, in 1931, the two days became separate holidays, and Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day (November 11th). Answer the following questions: 1. When did Parliament proclaim Thanksgiving in Canada? ______________________________________________________________________ 2. When is Thanksgiving celebrated in Canada? ______________________________________________________________________ 3. When was the first Thanksgiving feast held in Canada? ______________________________________________________________________ 4. Who was Martin Frobisher? ______________________________________________________________________ 5. When did Thanksgiving and Armistice Day become separate? ______________________________________________________________________ Fonte: Richmond Publishing