Thanksgiving Around the World

To many, Thanksgiving may seem like a uniquely American holiday. To be fair, our own version of it is. Celebrating the Pilgrims’ survival of that first harsh year in New England wouldn’t make much sense in Japan, for example. Yet Japan does observe a form of Thanksgiving – in fact, variations of the holiday are celebrated around the world in more than a dozen countries. It goes to show that, no matter where you call home, there’s something to be thankful for.

North American Tradition

It might surprise you, but Canada claims the first Thanksgiving celebration in North America. In 1578, an expedition led by English navigator Martin Frobisher held a ceremony in what is now Nunavut, in the northernmost part of the country, to give thanks for the safety of their fleet in crossing to the Americas. That’s more than 40 years before the first Thanksgiving in what would later become the United States. Canada’s Parliament declared Nov. 6 Thanksgiving Day in 1879, then changed it to the second Monday of October in 1957.

Today, Canadian Thanksgiving meals look a lot like those in the United States, but that’s largely due to travel between the two countries. And our northern neighbor wasn’t the only one to end up sharing many of those similarities.

Liberia, a republic in West Africa, is nowhere near the United States, but it has a very American-feeling Thanksgiving. Once you consider its history, however, it all makes sense. Liberia was established in the 1820s by freed slaves from the United States. In the 1880s, the Liberian government passed an act declaring the first Thursday of November as National Thanksgiving Day. It’s largely a Christian holiday today, with churches offering baskets of fruit after their services. Meals feature spicy roast chicken and mashed cassavas (a root vegetable like potatoes or carrots) rather than turkey and pumpkin.

Norfolk Island is yet another small nation that commemorates Thanksgiving in the American manner. The remote island in the Pacific Ocean was once a British prison colony and is today a territory of Australia. In the mid-1890s, American trader Isaac Robinson decided to host an American-style Thanksgiving service at All Saints Church in Kingston. His plan was to attract visiting American whalers, and it worked like a charm. Today, parishioners on the island continue to observe the holiday on the last Wednesday of November.

Oct. 25 marks Thanksgiving Day on the West Indian island of Grenada. It commemorates the day US and Caribbean forces invaded 1983 to restore order after a military coup put the island under martial law. While stationed on the island, American troops told the locals about the upcoming holiday and its traditions. To show their gratitude, many in the towns and villages began inviting soldiers to have Thanksgiving dinners with them.

US expats have brought Thanksgiving celebrations to the United Kingdom, the Philippines, and a variety of other nations – but there are other, older celebrations as well.

Thanksgiving Around the World

Many of the Pilgrims who traveled to America spent several years living and working in the Dutch city of Leiden, which holds an annual commemoration of the breaking of the Spanish siege in 1574. Some argue the American Thanksgiving is actually based on this. In any case, Leiden celebrates its ties to the Mayflower’s passengers by holding non-denominational church services on the fourth Thursday of November.

In Japan, people celebrate Kinro Kansha no Hi (Labor Thanksgiving Day). It grew out of an ancient rice harvest festival called Niinamesai. The ancient tradition goes back more than 1,200 years, but sometime during the Meiji Era (1869 to 1912), the festival date was set to Nov. 23. Today, labor organizations sponsor events at which citizens are encouraged to honor the principles of hard work and community involvement. Children often make thank-you cards for policemen and firefighters. In Malaysia, there are three different harvest festivals – Kaamatan Festival, Gawai Dayak, and Ponggal – celebrated by different regional cultures from January to May, and some even include buffalo races.

Thanksgiving Day also exists as a harvest festival in Saint Lucia, where, on the first Monday in October, families gather for a meal. Korea celebrates Chuseok, another harvest holiday, in either late September or early October, with family reunions, ancestral rites, and traditional foods such as songpyeon (small rice cakes with a variety of fillings) and jeon (a savory pancake made from fish, meat, or vegetables).

Germany, Austria, and Switzerland all commemorate some form of Erntedankfest, a harvest festival in early October celebrated in both Catholic and Protestant churches. After services, many communities have a Lanternumzug (Lantern Parade), and some even employ fireworks.

We often think of Thanksgiving as American, but the truth is, people the world over have reasons to give thanks. And they all have their own way of showing it.

1. Canada had the first Thanksgiving Day celebration in North America in 1578.
2. Many countries have Thanksgiving celebrations inspired by those in the United States.
3. Harvest festivals around the globe commemorate thanks in their own ways.