Hoy en día — Lunes, De octubre 12, 2009 — is the Thanksgiving holiday en Canadá.

Canadians celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday roughly six weeks earlier than Americans do. Y U.S. expatriados siempre preguntar, “Why?"

Here’s an excerpt from my book, Residentes en el Extranjero en Canadá, sobre ¿por Acción de Gracias canadiense es en octubre:

Mientras que Canada doesn’t share the pilgrim legends that infuse U.S. Thanksgiving traditions, the country does have a history of thanksgiving feasts….

The Canadian government first proclaimed an official holiday for “the blessings of an abundant harvest” in November 1879. For the next 40-some years, Canada celebrated Thanksgiving on varying dates in either October or November….Finally, en 1957, Parliament permanently declared that Thanksgiving would be celebrated on the second Monday of October.

Pero ¿por qué octubre? Los historiadores no están de acuerdo, aunque muchos dicen que es porque October is harvest time in much of Canada. A finales de noviembre, wide swaths of the country are already covered in snow.

Most Americans will find Canada’s Thanksgiving foods familiar. Canadians typically load up their holiday table with turkey, relleno, mashed or sweet potatoes, salsa de arándanos agrios, at least of couple of other vegetables, and some sort of pie.

Canadienses que viven revista highlights some of the subtle differences between Thanksgiving dinners in Canada and the U.S here.

Feliz Día del Pavo!

Foto por Shoshanah (Flickr)