We were blessed to share the day with family; thank you for inviting us.
Thank you to all of you who have wished everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, especially those of you outside the U.S. How kind of you to think of us.
In my attempt to become more globally aware of other countries that celebrate a similar holiday, I have put together the following guide. Many of these are holidays that celebrate the harvest season. If anyone is aware of other celebrations, please let me know.
- Australian territory of Norfolk Island: last Wednesday of November
- Barbados: Beginning in June, the celebration lasts anywhere from six weeks to three months.
- Brazil: fourth Thursday of November
- Canada: second Monday of October
- China: 15th day of the eighth lunar cycle of the year
- Germany: first Sunday of October
- Ghana: centered around the harvest season
- Grenada: October 25
- Israel: lasts for seven days and begins on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei; five days after Yom Kippur. There is also Shavu’ot, a celebration of wheat harvest in the spring (thanks to Tony and Margie at the wonderful blog Back Roads and Other Stories for this update)
- Japan: November 23
- Liberia: first Thursday of November
- Malaysia: celebrated for the month of May; culminates in a two-day public holiday
- Netherlands: first Wednesday in November
- Philippines: last Thursday in November
- Rwanda: first Friday of August
- Saint Lucia: first Monday in October
- South Africa: harvest festivals after the grape harvesting is done for wine production, from late January through March (thank you to fellow blogger Tandy who has the wonderful blog Lavender and Lime)
- South Korea: 15th day of the eighth lunar cycle of the year
- United Kingdom: traditionally held on or near the Sunday of the harvest moon that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox. (one in six Britons also celebrate Thanksgiving on the same day as the U.S., referring to it as Brits-giving.) update from Clive at his great blog, Take It Easy: Harvest Festivals in the United Kingdom take place at different days after harvest usually in September or October; the Sunday is Harvest Thanksgiving day.
- United States: fourth Thursday of November
- Vietnam: 15th day of the eighth lunar cycle of the year
sources:
*image from Town & Country magazine
Happy Thanksgiving Jim! Thanks for the list.
A 3 montb celebration? I could handle that. 🙂
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thanks, Carolyn. I hope you had a great day. A 3-month celebration seems a bit long…
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You are welcome and we did. Though by nightime I started fading fast. Worked nightshift on Wednesday night. That would be the reason for no post last night. I am not as dedicated as you. LOL!
You are 3 months probably would get a little long.
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I can’t imagine working night shift – more power to you.
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Caffeine is magic. LOL!
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I can’t drink caffeine 😦
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I have to watch how much I drink which is why I only do 1 or 2 night shifts a week!
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nice to have that flexibility…
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I could not do it if I couldn’t have caffeine. They asked me if I could switch to working all nights and give up my days and I was like Umm…No! I would be a zombie!
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I don’t blame you!
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But honestly its not that hard for I seems to wake up a lot anyway on most nights and I am a night owl. From about 2am to 4am is the worse.
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Oh what about Italy? 🙂 If I am going to be a tourist I need to know.
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seems like you should celebrate Thanksgiving before you go to Italy…
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Cool list. Thanks.
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you are welcome.
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thanks for sharing this great list, jim and hope you had a great day –
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it was fun putting it together; we did have a fun day. I hope you did as well…
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Ok I want the Barbados celebration as long as I don’t have to do all the cooking. Enjoy your Thanksgiving!
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Three months seems a bit long to me 🙂
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I just enjoy celebratory food.
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seems like there would be a lot of it!
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I hope you had a nice Turkey Day, Jim.
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it was a good day; I hope yours was as well…
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It was. So far I haven’t contracted food poisoning, and that’s a plus.
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that’s always a good thing…
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Happy Thanksgiving! What great list! In Israel there is also Shavu’ot, a celebration of wheat harvest in the spring
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thank you for that info; I’ve updated my post!
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Thanks for the shoutout ❤
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you are welcome!
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I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and have some leftovers to enjoy. Every country should have a holiday like Thanksgiving.
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thank you, and same to you. I was surprised there weren’t more…
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It is surprising there aren’t more countries. And except for Rwanda and Norfolk Island, all are entirely in the northern hemisphere.
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you are probably the only person who noticed that!
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How interesting that many countries celebrate at a similar time of the year. I also like to be aware of traditions worldwide because it helps us become more culturally sensitive.
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I guess a lot of the celebrationa focus on being grateful for the harvest. And I agree; anything that can make us more culturally sensitive is a good thing.
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Again, we see that no matter how different we may think we are, we are more alike than we know. Great post, Jim!
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thanks, Brad. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving!
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In the UK this is Harvest Festival for us. Very much a church thing, also marked in many schools, but without the big family gathering. We only get together and slaughter turkeys once a year!
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thanks, Clive! I’ve updated my post based on your info…
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It’s just like fixing Wikipedia 😂
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except people actually read Wikipedia…
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😂👏
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I could get down with a three month Thanksgiving.
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seems a bit long to me…
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Funny, I was just going to say the opposite…
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🙂
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Well looks like I need to start planning my move to Barbados. Not to worry, I’ll have plenty of rooms for guests!
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how kind of you!
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I was in the UK in November 1987 visiting an American friend. We celebrated Thanksgiving with a room full of brits. It was all very new to them. I even needed to bring cranberry sauce because it wasn’t sold in London at the time. This was a month after black Monday and there was a lot of animosity towards Americans. Weird evening.
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Happy Thanksgiving! We have harvest festivals here after the grape harvesting is done for wine production.
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thank you! what time of the year are those harvest festivals?
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As early as the end of January all the way through to possibly the end of March.
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thank you; I’ve updated my post!
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Wishing you a warm and happy Thanksgiving
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thanks you, Kally.
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It is boggling to see so many celebrations, yet not surprising, as bringing in the harvest is certainly cause to celebrate. The African harvest celebration consists of 4 things to do: settle old quarrels, tell a story, sing and dance, eat. I often have this celebration at school. Settling old quarrels is the best (Gloria helps.)
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thanks for this info, Jennie. Is it any particular country in Africa that has such a celebration? Sounds wonderful…
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Not that I know of. It is one of my favorite celebrations.
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sounds like it would be fun to celebrate…
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It is!
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HI Jim, this is an interesting post. I didn’t know so many people celebrated although it does make sense to celebrate the harvest.
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it does seem like a good time to show gratitude…
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Thank you for recognizing other countries celebrating thanks! Hope you had a good Thanksgiving! 🙂
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we did – thank you!
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Thanks for the inclusion Jim (Canada). I hope you had a fantastic time celebrating. I will say, there was some good football going on for sure! 🙂
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we did have a nice day; and there were some good football games going on the past few days!
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I’m a big NFL fan, surprise surprise. 🙂
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I have to admit I was not aware of that!
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Lol, most people are not. It gets me through Sundays 🙂
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who is your favorite team?
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NO Saints have been my fav for years, although these past two years I’m feeling like I don’t have a fav anymore. Yikes, how did Seattle turn so bad, lol 🙂
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Seattle has alays been a favorite of mine because of Pete Carroll…
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Lol, New England was a fav team ‘after’ Carol left, lol.
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🙂
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