Fact Blast: Everything You Need to Know About Canadian Thanksgiving

In addition to being Indigenous Peoples’ Day, today is also another important holiday: Canadian Thanksgiving (or as they call it in Canada, ‘Canadian Thanksgiving”). To understand how our northern neighbor’s version of the holiday differs from our own, consume the following Fact Blast:

• On Canadian Thanksgiving, Canadians make a big roast turkey, clasp hands, and tell each other how grateful they are to be a family, just as at every other Canadian meal.
• Today is the traditional day for children to receive their first maple leaf tattoo.
• A common table centerpiece is a cornucopia filled with free healthcare.
• The holiday takes place two weeks after Canadian Halloween, which is the 31st of Canadian August, and always on a Monday, which is known as Canadian Thursday.
• Canadian Thanksgiving is a national holiday, but all Canadians still go to work in case Americans need anything.
• The holiday is always followed by ‘You’re Welcome, Eh” Day.
• The Prime Minister ceremoniously pardons a turkey, and also every criminal.
• The traditional Canadian Thanksgiving prayer goes, ‘Thank you Lord for all of Canada, except of course for Quebec.”
• There is also pie, but it is made with the Canadian equivalent of pumpkins, chewing gum.
• Canadian Thanksgiving marks the first day of Canadian Burning Man, an anarchistic (within reason) festival that culminates in a huge statue of ‘the man” being told politely ‘no thank you.”
• Canadian Thanksgiving does NOT involve playing mean pranks on Native Americas, as U.S. Thanksgiving does.