Typically whether people are celebrating Thanksgiving in Canada or the United States, there is a huge mean prepared. Turkey is usually the main meat dish. Other foods to accompany the turkey might be mashed potatoes and gravy, ham, green beans, peas, cranberry sause, or cranberries, pumpkin or other types of pies and deserts of many varieties. The accompying foods eaten with the turkey listed above is mostly the popular foods along with green or black olives, and can include many other foods. Many people over eat at Thanksgiving. For many years I have made an effort not to overeat as it doen't accomplish anything or add any pleasure.
Both in the United States and Canada Thanksgiving usually includes the weekend as well, so it is a vacation from work or school for most people. We have been going to our kids', one of our identical twins' place near Spokane, Washington for a quite a few years. One of the reasons is that the 2nd of December which is usually about a week after Thanksgiving is my birthday, and also our granddaughter's birthday. She was born on my birthday, so we share birthdays, and we normally stay over there to celebrate that. This year we have to return after the Thanksgiving holiday as we have a granddaughter that we need to return home so that she can get on the school bus to be in school attendance.
The Canadians celebrate their Thanksgiving on the 2nd Monday in October, while we celebrate our Thanksgiving the 4th Thursday in November. Columbus Day is also the same as the Canadian Thanksgiving. The Canadians gave thanks for various reasons until 1957 they decided that their Thanksgiving was being thankful for the end of harvest. Our USA Thanksgiving is also a time to be thankful, and it is supposed to be a celebration of when the pilgrims came to America and had a dinner with the American Indians, or Native Americans. It also incorporates stories about Columbus' discovering the new world.
Many of the American Indians/Native Americans are not happy with the Thanksgiving celebration or the observance of Columbus coming to America. They think that the white man changed their lives for the worst when he came. The Indians have been depicted as being savages wearing very few clothes, but that depended on which part of the country they were from. The white people truly have mistreated the Indians. The government of the white man has lied to the Indians, abused and killed them without any good reason. White people have mistreated the Indians, brought them sicknesses and diseases, and committed atrocities against the Indians. The government of the whilte people has lied to the Indians, making treaties with them,and then breaking those treaties. They have robbed the Indians of their best lands and then herded them like cattle at gun point onto reservations where many Indians starved because the land they were given was not fertile. Many people have problems with Indian rights, saying we don't owe them anything, but yes, we do owe them something, and they have everything coming they are given and more as well. We don't do too much for the Indians in fact we don't do enough for the Indians.
I don't have much Indian blood percentatge in me, but I do have Indian heritage. My great-great grandmother was full blood Cherokee.
So those are some thoughts about Thanksgiving. We celebrate it, enjoy it, and eat all we should, tasting of all the delicious foods and deserts. We enjoy the time off it affords us, and we also think about what all we have to be thankful for.
