Thanks(a lot)given dinner
 

"Michel Boucher" > wrote in message

> challenged person, by her own admission. So, with a menu already
> designed to the time constraints (has to start at 6, be over by
> 7:45), this pie-making cuts in to my schedule (and she started this
> yesterday!). You see, two of the participants (maybe all four) have
> to be at church at 8PM (huh? I sez, but they're Polish and this is
> apparently de rigueur).

These problems would not arise if you celebrated the REAL Thanksgiving in
November. No church required, no time constraints. After dinner you could
have all sat around the fire singing and sharing pumpkin pie.

"Edwin Pawlowski" > wrote in
m:

> "Michel Boucher" > wrote in message
>
>> challenged person, by her own admission. So, with a menu already
>> designed to the time constraints (has to start at 6, be over by
>> 7:45), this pie-making cuts in to my schedule (and she started
>> this yesterday!). You see, two of the participants (maybe all
>> four) have to be at church at 8PM (huh? I sez, but they're Polish
>> and this is apparently de rigueur).
>
> These problems would not arise if you celebrated the REAL
> Thanksgiving in November. No church required, no time
> constraints. After dinner you could have all sat around the fire
> singing and sharing pumpkin pie.

Ah, a troublemaker...

It would still happen, believe me. If it wasn't church it would be
something else. Besides, November is a long time to wait for a long
weekend. AND we already have a day off November 11 (or some of us
do).

--

"It is easier for a rich man to enter heaven seated
comfortably on the back of a camel, than it is for
a poor man to pass through the eye of a needle."

Supply Side Jesus

"Michel Boucher" > wrote in message
...

>
> It would still happen, believe me. If it wasn't church it would be
> something else. Besides, November is a long time to wait for a long
> weekend. AND we already have a day off November 11 (or some of us
> do).

Columbus Day is a holiday for about half of us. Our Thanksgiving has
evolved into a kickoff for Christmas shopping and a long weekend. Many
industries are closing on the day after also. We get 10 holidays a year,
but five of them are between Thanksgiving and New Years day. Long stretch
from Presidents Day in February to Memorial Day at the end of May.

"Edwin Pawlowski" > wrote in
om:

> "Michel Boucher" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>> It would still happen, believe me. If it wasn't church it would
>> be something else. Besides, November is a long time to wait for
>> a long weekend. AND we already have a day off November 11 (or
>> some of us do).
>
> Columbus Day is a holiday for about half of us. Our Thanksgiving
> has evolved into a kickoff for Christmas shopping and a long
> weekend. Many industries are closing on the day after also. We
> get 10 holidays a year, but five of them are between Thanksgiving
> and New Years day. Long stretch from Presidents Day in February
> to Memorial Day at the end of May.

But your Thanksgiving was originally a harvest festival. Ours is
earlier because our harvest time is in October, as we're farther
north (on the whole as there are parts of the US which are farther
north than parts of Canada).

In Ontario we have 11 statutory holidays:

1 January 2004 New Year’s Day
9 April 2004 Good Friday
12 April 2004 Easter Monday
24 May 2004 Victoria Day
1 July 2004 Canada Day
2 August 2004 (Ontario) Civic Holiday
6 September 2004 Labour Day
11 October 2004 Thanksgiving Day
11 November 2004 Remembrance Day
25-26 December 2004 Christmas Holidays

On top of that, as an employee of the House of Commons, I also get
June 24th (Saint-Jean Baptiste) which is the official holiday in
Québec, although I live in Ontario.

I have 12 days of statutory holidays a year, and I benefit from a
program where I purchase 5 hours a week for 39 weeks to use during
the 13 weeks remaining weeks during which time I am allowed to take
holidays. Last summer I took 10 weeks' holidays during the summer, a
week at Easter and two weeks around Christmas and New Years. On the
whole, I do fairly well on holidays, although I do have to extend my
work day by an hour each day to benefit from that.

--

"It is easier for a rich man to enter heaven seated
comfortably on the back of a camel, than it is for
a poor man to pass through the eye of a needle."

Supply Side Jesus

"Gregory Morrow" >
wrote in link.net:

> Michel Boucher wrote:
>
>> But your Thanksgiving was originally a harvest festival.
>
> But ISTR that the US Thanksgiving was largely an "invented"
> holiday, not much more than 100 years old (if that). It being the
> US, I'm sure there were some mercantile elements that came into
> the decision to establish the holiday ;-)

Of course there was. I didn't mean to say that it WAS a harvest
festival, only that an original Thanksgiving was at one time a
harvest festival. The practice of Thanksgiving was brought here by
loyalists who fled the depredation of the Revolting which affected
the US for a time. This is why it is of little interest to French-
Canadians and until recently was in fact used by the Church as an
unofficial holiday, like Labour Day, where people would go spend the
day in church. Well...it kept them off the streets...

The reason the Canadian Thanksgiving is earlier is because it was
ostensibly made to coincide with the earlier (to New England) harvest
and in fact the 1957 act of Parliament which instituted it as a
statutory holiday (rather than relying on the former practice of
successive Royal Proclamations) specifically said it was to be "a day
of general thanksgiving to almighty God for the bountiful harvest
with which Canada has been blessed."

http://www.web-holidays.com/canada/

http://www.thanksgiving-traditions.com/html/canada.html

http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp...a/action_e.cfm

There is no gift-buying holiday associated with Thanksgiving in
Canada. Today I am going wargaming at a friend's house.

Our smarmy, dysfunctional family reunion holiday is Christmas.

--

"It is easier for a rich man to enter heaven seated
comfortably on the back of a camel, than it is for
a poor man to pass through the eye of a needle."

Supply Side Jesus

On Tue, 12 Oct 2004 08:22:33 -0400, Steve Calvin
> wrote:

> Me thinks that I've been "had" all these years! But at least I do enjoy
> cooking so what the heck. ;-)

So we really have a win-win situation here.

sf
Practice safe eating - always use condiments