This article tells us a new program in Canada which is called “Share Thanksgiving”, launched in Toronto in 2012 by Engineers Without Borders Canada co-founder Parker Mitchell. As everybody knows, Canada is a country of immigrants, and according to Statistics Canada, 1.2 million people immigrated to Canada between 2006 and 2011. One in five people in this country are foreign born. For this great number of recent immigrant families, thanksgiving tradition of Canada seems still unfamiliar. Parker Mitchell, who has traveled around the world and received a lot of generosity in homes abroad, founded this event to bring this to Canada to bridge that gap, by connecting new Canadians with established families to break bread and give thanks. Since last year, also the first year of this program, a lot of original Canadian families joined into this big event, some of them share those stories of the Thanksgiving Day with those new arrivals in this article. By spending a Thanksgiving Day with the established families, the new Canadians feel like they are one part of the country, and those established families think that being a Canadian, they should also share Thanksgiving with a new Canadian.
As far as we know, Thanksgiving Day has been a national public holiday in Canada on the second Monday of October since 1957. It is a chance for people to give thanks for a good harvest and other fortunes in the past year. People often use the three-day Thanksgiving weekend to visit family or friends, or to receive them in their own homes. They prepare a special meal to eat. Traditionally, this included roast turkey and seasonal produce, such as pumpkin, corn ears and pecan nuts. For this year, it was 14, Oct, this Monday. As far as I’m concerned, I think “Share Thanksgiving” is a great program. First of all, in a country where lives a lot of immigrants, as a native citizen, we should do something to make people connected and to unite the whole country. Furthermore, considering the importance of the Thanksgiving Day in Canada and among the Canadian people, it’s a great occasion to hold some events to make people together and to make this day more meaningful. What’s more, since it has been a great success in the first year, and the feedbacks were all positive, it’s worth to hold it every year.
