How many countries celebrate Thanksgiving?

By middleml | Updated: Sept. 8, 2024, 12:26 p.m.

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With Thanksgiving done for this year I wondered, How many countries celebrate Thanksgiving? Any copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review, and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own. All images used are public domain; licensed under Creative Commons with attribution, or used with permission. https://www.mondly.com/blog/2021/11/17/what-countries-celebrate-thanksgiving/

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Geography Moment
As I sit here Thanksgiving has come and gone for another year. I was
 just wondering

How many countries celebrate Thanksgiving?
 Growing
 up I had thought Thanksgiving was strictly American. I then found out that Canada celebrates Thanksgiving. Here is a list of countries that celebrate a Thanksgiving holiday.

Everything seems familiar to ours except for the date, of course. Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October. 
Canada
Canadian Thanksgiving goes back to 1578 when British explorer and his crew returned from their search of the Northwest Passage. 
To give thanks for their safe return, they organized a feast.
Germany, Austria, Switzerland
In Europe, the idea of Thanksgiving generally revolves the celebration of the autumn harvests. Largely
 religious in nature, the celebration occurs around the time of the main harvest – early October

Netherlands
Ok, this is not entirely true. Not all Dutch people celebrate Thanksgiving, just this city called Leiden. The well-known Pilgrims that feasted with the Wampanoags in 1621, many lived in Leiden for about 11 years, until they sailed away in 1620
Grenada
Grenadians give thanks for the American-led invasion that 
helped them take back their country in 1983

Japan
Known also as ‘Labor Thanksgiving Day’, the celebration has 
lost some of its original meaning and is regarded now as an occasion
 for commemorating labor and reflecting on issues that impact the community
Liberia
The freed slaves from the United States who returned to the
 country around 1820, brought something back from the US. Today Liberia is probably the only other country in the world that celebrates the 
American Thanksgiving.
The United Kingdom
Thanksgiving in the UK is actually a 
Harvest Festival held in late September or early October
Brazil
This is a little different. Apparently, sometime in the 1940s, Brazilian ambassador returned home from a trip to the US very enthusiastic about the commemorations he saw in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Thanksgiving Day. He suggested to the country’s President to institute the celebration in Brazil as well, and their Thanksgivings started.
Geography Moment

How many countries celebrate Thanksgiving?

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