Thanksgiving - and 'word for the day'
One more 3 day weekend, before winter kicks in, for the Canadians to enjoy themselves. This is 'thanksgiving', something that we dont have at home (isnt one turkey a year enough?) so, as a mini lesson to you all, and aided by Kim who fowarded me a web page with the thanksgiving history in it, I have posted underneath a mini history of the event from a Canadian perspective. I wonder whether anyone in England gave thanks in 1872 that Edward recovered from his illness...
Thanksgiving is a chance to be with your loved ones and, so it would appear, gather together and eat turkey dinners. If the occasion is anything like as overcatered as a normal UK Christmas, these guys will just be putting the finishing touches to this turkey when its time to go shopping for the next one..
Thinking of such gluttony, i did mention to Kim that she would be 'eating turkey for the next fortnight'.. at which point I discovered that I clearly havent been speaking enough English, since she had, despite a lifetime's immersion into Coronation Street (another story altogether), never heard of the word fortnight. A pub poll of 4 last night (and no i'm not suggesting that's necessarily representative, but it might be!) indicates that at least 60% of Canadians dont use this word.
So for any readers that do not know, the word fortnight, as explained by Wikipedia, turns out to be as follows:
A fortnight is a unit of time equal to two weeks: that is 14 days, or literally 14 nights. The term derives from the Old English "feowertiene niht", meaning "fourteen nights". Your little lesson of the day - the history of a word you've probably never thought about before.
I like the idea of thanksgiving. The thought of being thankful for what you have been given and what life has provided you with - it appears to be wholly removed from religion, and i like that too. We dont have to agree who is responsible for putting us on this planet, how it was created, and whether there is a God, or several.
I think we have all, as human beings, been in positions where we could wake up one morning and genuinely think 'I am lucky to be here'. Perhaps it needs a life changing moment to trigger that, sometimes it's just a realisation that the sheer existence of our world as it is, where it is placed, and how delicately balanced it is, is a minor miracle.. perhaps for some of us, it is the realisation that our lot is hopefully a pretty fortunate one in the main... who knows?
For me personally, I know how lucky I am to be here, healthy (i've had my moments..), to be where I am, doing what I do, and getting paid what I get paid. Its a fairly privileged position. So, to my family, friends, colleagues past and present, and my adopted country, thank you. Turkey? No, thank you. We'll save that for Christmas.
Thanksgiving is a chance to be with your loved ones and, so it would appear, gather together and eat turkey dinners. If the occasion is anything like as overcatered as a normal UK Christmas, these guys will just be putting the finishing touches to this turkey when its time to go shopping for the next one..
Thinking of such gluttony, i did mention to Kim that she would be 'eating turkey for the next fortnight'.. at which point I discovered that I clearly havent been speaking enough English, since she had, despite a lifetime's immersion into Coronation Street (another story altogether), never heard of the word fortnight. A pub poll of 4 last night (and no i'm not suggesting that's necessarily representative, but it might be!) indicates that at least 60% of Canadians dont use this word.
So for any readers that do not know, the word fortnight, as explained by Wikipedia, turns out to be as follows:
A fortnight is a unit of time equal to two weeks: that is 14 days, or literally 14 nights. The term derives from the Old English "feowertiene niht", meaning "fourteen nights". Your little lesson of the day - the history of a word you've probably never thought about before.
I like the idea of thanksgiving. The thought of being thankful for what you have been given and what life has provided you with - it appears to be wholly removed from religion, and i like that too. We dont have to agree who is responsible for putting us on this planet, how it was created, and whether there is a God, or several.
I think we have all, as human beings, been in positions where we could wake up one morning and genuinely think 'I am lucky to be here'. Perhaps it needs a life changing moment to trigger that, sometimes it's just a realisation that the sheer existence of our world as it is, where it is placed, and how delicately balanced it is, is a minor miracle.. perhaps for some of us, it is the realisation that our lot is hopefully a pretty fortunate one in the main... who knows?
For me personally, I know how lucky I am to be here, healthy (i've had my moments..), to be where I am, doing what I do, and getting paid what I get paid. Its a fairly privileged position. So, to my family, friends, colleagues past and present, and my adopted country, thank you. Turkey? No, thank you. We'll save that for Christmas.
posted by CBC at 11:54 pm
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