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A Thanksgiving hike
11 October 2010
We took Sophie for a hike on the Bruce Trail, Monday. Drove along Sixth Street up into the hills where the trail crosses over near the peak of the mountain, parked and walked into the woods for an hour. It never fails to amaze and delight me that within five or ten minutes' drive, we can be in the woods or the farmlands.
It was a perfect day for a walk along the trail; warm without being either too hot or cool, no breeze to speak of, bright blue sky and crisp scents of leaves in the air. Sophie, of course, loves this weather.
While most of the fall colour has gone, some remained, mostly bright yellows and some darker reds of sumac and dogwood. The bare trees opened to a wonderful view over the bay. Through the forest, the tall columns of the tree trunks created some stunning sight lines along our walk.
Thanksgiving is a bit of an odd holiday. Canadians and Americans celebrate it on different dates, and for different reasons. According to Wikipedia and some other online sites, in Canada Thanksgiving corresponds to European harvest festivals, and has a liturgical background, with scriptural selections drawn from biblical stories relating to the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot.
It was actually explorer Martin Frobisher who held a formal ceremony in Newfoundland, in 1578, to give thanks for surviving the long journey of his (failed) attempt to locate the Northwest Passage. The feast was the first Thanksgiving celebration by Europeans in North America. But it wasn't the harvest festival of today.
French settlers, many of whom arrived in North America with explorer Samuel de Champlain, also held feasts of thanks from 1604 onwards. Their 'Order of Good Cheer' shared their food with their First Nations neighbours at these events.
After the American Revolution, loyalist American refugees who came to Canada brought the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada. Canadian Thanksgiving was not, however, observed every year until 1879: the date was proclaimed annually and changed year to year.
After World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11 occurred. The two only became separate holidays in 1931, when Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day. But it wasn't until January 31, 1957, that Parliament proclaimed, "A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed … to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October. "
No clear separation of church and state in that proclamation, I note.
Unlike our neighbours, Canadian Thanksgiving doesn't have its basis in a particular historical event. The US Thanksgiving, of course, reflects the celebration at the Puritan's Plymouth settlement, in 1621. However, US researchers have argued that the earliest attested "thanksgiving" celebration was celebrated by the Spanish on September 8, 1565 in what would become Saint Augustine, Florida. However, that seems an academic argument that will move few to change the date of their celebration.
It was still sunny when we returned, and gently warm, so we sat on the back deck, reading and enjoying a bottle of Belgian-made Mort Subite kriek beer. Kriek beer is cherry beer, and this brand is also a lambic - wild yeast - beer. Not sweet at all - in fact, it's rather tart and a little acidic with no hoppy taste at all. Lovely red colour, too. Kriek beer is one of our favourites; a fruity, sharp taste perfect for a late afternoon. There are other lambic beers at the LCBO, but this one simply appeals to us the most.
Lambic beers are an acquired taste, and very different from the chemically sweetness of most mass-produced commercial beers, but I recommend you try one.
According to Wikipedia, "Mort Subite is the brand name for a number of lambic beers brewed by the Belgian brewery Keersmaeker. The beers take their name from a café in Brussels, A La Mort Subite. Mort subite means "sudden death" in French, but can also be used to refer to the final throw in a dice game. Underground trading once took place within A La Mort Subite - it was named after the speed at which one could lose one's money."
It was a perfect day for a walk along the trail; warm without being either too hot or cool, no breeze to speak of, bright blue sky and crisp scents of leaves in the air. Sophie, of course, loves this weather.
While most of the fall colour has gone, some remained, mostly bright yellows and some darker reds of sumac and dogwood. The bare trees opened to a wonderful view over the bay. Through the forest, the tall columns of the tree trunks created some stunning sight lines along our walk.
Thanksgiving is a bit of an odd holiday. Canadians and Americans celebrate it on different dates, and for different reasons. According to Wikipedia and some other online sites, in Canada Thanksgiving corresponds to European harvest festivals, and has a liturgical background, with scriptural selections drawn from biblical stories relating to the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot.
It was actually explorer Martin Frobisher who held a formal ceremony in Newfoundland, in 1578, to give thanks for surviving the long journey of his (failed) attempt to locate the Northwest Passage. The feast was the first Thanksgiving celebration by Europeans in North America. But it wasn't the harvest festival of today.
French settlers, many of whom arrived in North America with explorer Samuel de Champlain, also held feasts of thanks from 1604 onwards. Their 'Order of Good Cheer' shared their food with their First Nations neighbours at these events.
After the American Revolution, loyalist American refugees who came to Canada brought the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada. Canadian Thanksgiving was not, however, observed every year until 1879: the date was proclaimed annually and changed year to year.
After World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11 occurred. The two only became separate holidays in 1931, when Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day. But it wasn't until January 31, 1957, that Parliament proclaimed, "A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed … to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October. "
No clear separation of church and state in that proclamation, I note.
Unlike our neighbours, Canadian Thanksgiving doesn't have its basis in a particular historical event. The US Thanksgiving, of course, reflects the celebration at the Puritan's Plymouth settlement, in 1621. However, US researchers have argued that the earliest attested "thanksgiving" celebration was celebrated by the Spanish on September 8, 1565 in what would become Saint Augustine, Florida. However, that seems an academic argument that will move few to change the date of their celebration.
It was still sunny when we returned, and gently warm, so we sat on the back deck, reading and enjoying a bottle of Belgian-made Mort Subite kriek beer. Kriek beer is cherry beer, and this brand is also a lambic - wild yeast - beer. Not sweet at all - in fact, it's rather tart and a little acidic with no hoppy taste at all. Lovely red colour, too. Kriek beer is one of our favourites; a fruity, sharp taste perfect for a late afternoon. There are other lambic beers at the LCBO, but this one simply appeals to us the most.
Lambic beers are an acquired taste, and very different from the chemically sweetness of most mass-produced commercial beers, but I recommend you try one.
According to Wikipedia, "Mort Subite is the brand name for a number of lambic beers brewed by the Belgian brewery Keersmaeker. The beers take their name from a café in Brussels, A La Mort Subite. Mort subite means "sudden death" in French, but can also be used to refer to the final throw in a dice game. Underground trading once took place within A La Mort Subite - it was named after the speed at which one could lose one's money."
