1st Post-Confed. Cdn.Thanksgiving was April 5, 1872, to celebrate recovery of Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) from illness.

Very interesting, isn’t it? There’s a link you can read on the history and origins of Canadian Thanksgiving. Here are some important points:

• “Canadians give thanks for a successful harvest. The harvest season falls earlier in Canada compared to the United States due to the simple fact that Canada is further north.”
• The 1st Thanksgiving is considered to have taken place in 1578, when “Martin Frobisher held a formal ceremony, in what is now called Newfoundland, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. Other settlers arrived and continued these ceremonies. He was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him – Frobisher Bay.”
• Around the same time, French settlers “also held huge feasts of thanks. They even formed ‘The Order of Good Cheer’ and gladly shared their food with their Indian neighbours.”
• Canadian Thanksgiving dates had been changed many times throughout history.
• At one point, Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the same Monday!
• Canadian Thanksgiving has been celebrated on the 2nd Monday in October since it was declared by Parliament on 31 January 1957.