Thanksgiving: A Canadian Original or a U.S. Copy?

March 24, 2005 D. H. McKee

Off

While the Pilgrims occupy centre stage in traditional American Thanksgiving celebrations, it was Ontario’s Protestant Clergy, and later, commercial and state interests who helped shape Canada’s own unique and inchoate tradition of Thanksgiving in the mid 1800s.
In a finely crafted research paper, A Wealth of Meanings: Thanksgiving in Ontario, 1859-1914, 23-year-old York University PhD History candidate Peter Stevens reveals that Ontario church leaders appropriated the American autumn holiday and transformed it into an instrument of Canadian nationalism. And in doing so, Stevens has laid bare numerous myths and mistaken notions about the origins of our Thanksgiving holiday, which was first celebrated in the United Provinces of Canada in 1859.
YORK UNIVERSITY MEDIA RELEASE

Comments are closed.

About This Site

As a guy who occasionally curates art shows and wrangles artists together, I often have to edit and post artist bios, profile pictures, and artwork images. This can be a problem, since many artists and writers aren’t used to selling themselves. Artists rarely know how to present their art for display in a brochure, and writers aren’t used to writing about themselves.

Writers often treat the bio like it’s an interview or something. Maybe like they’re having a conversation with you, the reader. While it may work sometimes, the most common way to write a bio is to write in the 3rd person.

I’m like those writers, and I’m talking to you directly, unlike the common way to do a bio. You should see my About page. It makes sense to me, since this is a bit which describes my blog’s website. When I get famous enough that I don’t have time to talk to you, I’ll have an intern write everything in 3rd person. Until then, you get to talk to me.

Like blogs of old, this one is a personal document of the comings and goings of me. Articles I’ve written, links I’ve posted, videos I liked, etc. Here, a first-person perspective is the way to go, at least for now. So, this is my site. I’m D. H. McKee, a sometimes artist, sometimes writer. Mostly just a guy on the internet.