My Birthday and Canadian Thanksgiving

by Deeja
(Toronto, ON, Canada)

Canadian Thanksgiving takes place on the second Monday in October, but because most people work on the Tuesday, Thanksgiving Dinner often takes place on either Saturday or Sunday.

With my birthday on October 8th, this conflicted greatly with my birthday party plans as a little girl. I remember being rather dejected when all my party invitations were turned down, regardless of which day I chose to have it.

Thanksgiving didn't mean much in my family. We were immigrants and didn't understand the concept of only being thankful one day of the year. We tried to be thankful all year round.

Regardless, my mother couldn't stand to see my sad face every year, so we ended up celebrating Thanksgiving as a way of celebrating my birthday.

We'd invite my aunts, uncles, and cousins over and have turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy (which my mother learned to make from a cookbook) just like all my Canadian friends would.

On Tuesday when I went to school, I also could talk about the delicious food we had for Thanksgiving!

My mom would go all out... She would buy magazines to learn ideas. She decorated with maple leaves and gourds, something she probably learned from a magazine.

She always decorated the table with marigolds, the October birth flower, to honour my birthday. It didn't mean much at the time to a little girl, but it tugs at my heart nowadays whenever I see an arrangement of marigolds.

Now, I feel lucky that my birthday and Thanksgiving are so close together. Otherwise, I would have never learned to appreciate the Thanksgiving tradition, or accept it as one of my own.

I never had parties with balloons and streamers, or even sleepovers. But I am very thankful for my wonderful mother and all the great memories I have of my birthdays and Canadian Thanksgiving.