Did you know that different countries in the world celebrate Thanksgiving on different days?
Canada celebrates on the 2nd Monday in October
Liberia celebrates on the 1st Thursday in November
Norfolk Islands celebrate on the last Wednesday in November and
the USA celebrates on the 4th Thursday in November.
Thanksgiving proclamations were made mostly by church leaders in New England up until 1682, and then by both state and church leaders until after the American Revolution. During the revolutionary period, political influences affected the issuance of Thanksgiving proclamations. Various proclamations were made by royal governors, John Hancock, General George Washington, and the Continental Congress, each giving thanks to God for events favorable to their causes. As President of the United States, George Washington proclaimed the first nation-wide thanksgiving celebration in America marking November 26, 1789, "as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God".
Other observances known as Thanksgiving
Germany
The Harvest Thanksgiving Festival (Erntedankfest) is an early October, German festival. The festival has a significant religious component to it but also, like its North American counterpart, includes large harvest dinners (consisting mostly of autumn crops) and parades. The Bavarian beer festival Oktoberfest generally takes place within the vicinity of Erntedankfest.
Grenada
In the West Indian island of Grenada, there is a national holiday known as Thanksgiving Day which is celebrated on October 25. Even though it bears the same name, and is celebrated at roughly the same time as the American and Canadian versions of Thanksgiving, this holiday is unrelated to either of those celebrations. Instead the holiday marks the anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of the island in 1983, in response to the deposition and execution of Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop.
Korea
On Thanksgiving Day (Chuseok) is a harvest celebration, which is celebrated according to the lunar calendar, typically in late September, early October. CV
Japan
Labor Thanksgiving Day (勤労感謝の日 Kinrō Kansha no Hi ? ) is a national holiday in Japan. It takes place annually on November 23. The law establishing the holiday, which was adopted during the American occupation after World War II, cites it as an occasion for commemorating labor and production and giving one another thanks. Ithas roots in an ancient harvest ceremony (Niiname-sai (新 嘗祭 ? )) celebrating hard work.
Liberia
In the West African country of Liberia, which beginning in 1820, was colonized by free African Americans (most of whom had been formerly enslaved), Thanksgiving is celebrated on the first Thursday of November.
The Netherlands
Many of the Pilgrims who migrated to the Plymouth Plantation had resided in the city of Leiden from 1609–1620, many of whom had recorded their birth, marriages and deaths at the Pieterskerk.
To commemorate this, a non-denominational Thanksgiving Day service is held each year on the morning of the American Thanksgiving Day in the Pieterskerk, a Gothic church in Leiden, to commemorate the hospitality the Pilgrims received in Leiden on their way to the New World.
Norfolk Island
In the Australian external territory of Norfolk Island, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the last Wednesday of November, similar to the pre-World War II American observance on the last Thursday of the month. This means the Norfolk Island observance is the day before or six days after the United States' observance. The holiday was brought to the island by visiting American whaling ships.
In short, it really only matters what you are thankful for!
