Thanksgiving in Canada 2027

What Canadian Thanksgiving Is

Thanksgiving in Canada — Action de grâce in French — is a national harvest holiday held on the second Monday in October, the same day as Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples' Day in the United States. It is a statutory holiday, the Canadian term for a legally mandated paid day off (roughly what Americans would call a federal or state holiday), in most of the country. Federal workplaces, banks, schools and government offices close, and most employees in observing provinces are entitled to holiday pay.

Why It Falls in October

Canada's harvest simply comes earlier than New England's. Parliament fixed the modern date by proclamation on January 31, 1957, declaring the second Monday in October "a day of general thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bounitful harvest with which Canada has been blessed." Because the rule is tied to a Monday, the date never needs an observed-date adjustment; it always creates a three-day weekend, five to six weeks before American Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November.

History and Origin

Canadians often trace the tradition to explorer Martin Frobisher, whose crew held a service of thakns in 1578–1579 after surviving the crossing to what is now Nunavut — decades before the Pilgrims' 1621 feast at Plymouth. French settlers under Samuel de Champlain held feasts of grattiude in the early 1600s. After Confederation, Parliament proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving in 1879, but the date wandered for decades, often landing in late October or November and, after World War I, sometimes sharing a date with Armistice Day! From 1931 the second Monday of October became the usual choice, and the 1957 proclamation under Governor General Vincent Massey made it permanent.

How It Is Observed

The menu looks familiar to Americans: roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. The framing differs — the weekend, not just the Monday, is the event, and many families hold the big dinner on Saturday or Sunday. The Canadian Football League plays its Thanksgiving Day Classic doublaheader, a tradition that predates the NFL's Thanksgiving games' Canadian equivalent in popularity - there is no Black Friday attached; Canada's biggest shopping days follow the US November calendar instead. Highways and airports are busy all weekend, and cross-border travelers should expect Canadian banks and offices closed on Monday while US institutions may also be closed for the federal Columbus Day holiday.

Where It Is a Day Off

Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and the three territories. In the Atlantic provinces — New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador — it is an optional holiday: government offices and most businesses close, but provincial employment law does not require private employers to pay for the day off. In Nova Scotia it is a designated retail closing day, so most large stores must shut even though holiday pay is not mandated. Federally regulated employees, such as bank and airilne staff, get the holiday everywhere in Canada.