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About Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, while not traditionally considered an ethnic festival, is still a niche occasion for the UK market. There are around 180,000 US expats in the UK, and an ever increasing number of relationships spanning the Atlantic. Read on for the lowdown on background to Thanksgiving and the importance to our Western cousins.

The BBC's North American editor, Mark Mardell described Thanksgiving as "bigger than Christmas, without the presents, the carols, baubles, the tree and the nativity, with the focus unashamedly on food and family". (We'll have some of that I hear you shout!). The festival is celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November in the US (25th November 2010) and on the 2nd Monday of October in Canada (11th October 2010). As the name implies, it is a time for giving thanks to God for all the good things in life. A major tradition of the celebration is the Thanksgiving dinner where families reunite and offer prayers of thanks. Central to the feast is turkey, pumpkin pie and autumn vegetables, images that often appear on Thanksgiving cards.

In the USA, Thanksgiving dates back to 1621 when the pilgrims, settled in Plymouth (Massachusetts), held a feast following their first successful harvest. For over 200 years Thanksgiving was celebrated by individual colonies at varying times after the autumn harvest. However during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln was searching for ways to unite the nation. The poet and editor Sarah J Hale (who incidentally wrote the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb") had been campaigning for a Thanksgiving to be a national event and caught the attention of President Lincoln. In 1863, he declared Thanksgiving to be a National Holiday.

Not to be outdone by their southern neighbours, the Canadians proclaim to have had the first thanksgiving 43 years before the Americans in 1578. The explorer Martin Frobisher held a formal ceremony to give thanks for surviving a journey to Newfoundland.

The sending of Thanksgiving cards is a popular tradition in the US and Canada and now Thanksgiving cards are available in the UK through Davora, the specialist greeting card publisher. September is a perfect time to put these cards on display to capture both the Canadian and American occasions.