Did you know that the United States isn’t the only country in the world that celebrates Thanksgiving?
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That might come as a shock, given the holiday is distinctly American. It’s based on historical events, includes dishes with North American ingredients, and has steadily become an important part of our national identity. Thanksgiving is a time to gather with loved ones, feast like the world is ending, and settle in for the long winter.
But we aren’t the only country that celebrates that harvest.
While our Thanksgiving comes with a slew of cultural and historical significance, it’s still a harvest celebration. The very first Thanksgiving, celebrated in 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, was based on the physical sharing of the local harvest, including corn, pumpkin, beans, and more. It also served as a basis for future contact between English settlers and the local tribe.
Still, at its most basic, Thanksgiving celebrations come in many shapes and sizes around the world. They’re harvest feasts, reasons to gather with loved ones, and incorporate local cultural proclivities. Many are also tied to the US in some way, although not all include elements of cooperation, like America’s Thanksgiving. Some are even tied to religious observations.
In other words, there are a lot of distinctions when it comes to Thanksgiving festivities. Want to know which countries celebrate Thanksgiving aside from the US? Let’s count them off.
Which countries celebrate Thanksgiving aside from the United States?
Australia
- Celebrated on: Last Wednesday of November
Australia’s small Norfolk Island, which is located in the Pacific, almost 900 miles off the mainland, celebrates Thanksgiving in November. How and why, you might ask? American whalers used to frequent the island in the 1800s.
By the mid-1890s, the holiday became a fixture, with one local American beginning a tradition that continues today: decorating the local All Saints Church with local produce.
Brazil
- Celebrated on: Fourth Thursday in November
In Brazil, Thanksgiving celebrations are usually religious or celebrated by families with American origin. Some Protestant Christian churches celebrate the holiday as a harvest festival, giving thanks for the annual bounty. In some cases, these churches also have American affiliations, such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil.
Uniquely, Thanksgiving is also inscribed on the national calendar (althoygh it isn’t celebrated as a national holiday). That’s due to one US Ambassador who visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Washington, DC, and was blown away by the Thanksgiving proceedings. He ‘took’ the holiday back to Brazil, where it was officially instituted in 1949 as Dia de Ação de Graças.
Canada
- Celebrated on: Second Monday in October
Canada’s first Thanksgiving celebration, which occurred almost a century before the US’s official Thanksgiving feast in 1621, was more religious in nature. It was based on Christian observations from the English Reformation. However, the holiday is celebrated as a secular feast similar to America’s Thanksgiving.
Germany
- Celebrated on: First Sunday in October
Germany’s Erntedankfest is a Christian harvest celebration that intertwines the harvest with religious observation. It’s most widely celebrated today around the Düsseldorf area, where some churches are decorated with autumn crops and host religious processions on the first Sunday in October. Some larger celebrations even include traditional fair activities.
Liberia
- Celebrated on: Fourth Thursday in November
Quick history lesson: Liberia is a West African nation that was founded by formerly enslaved African Americans. They brought the holiday with them when the nation was founded in 1822. By the late 1800s, Thanksgiving was instituted as a national holiday.
It’s still celebrated today—but with a much more religious emphasis. Locals usually go to church on Thanksgiving and bring a piece of the ‘harvest’ with them, whether fruit or vegetables. The idea of Thanksgiving is to give thanks to the community, the land, and other blessings, including Liberia’s national stability and ongoing peace.
Netherlands
- Celebrated on: First Wednesday in November
Another quick history lesson: The pilgrims heading to Plymouth, Massachusetts, from England stopped in a Dutch town called Leiden before sailing across the Atlantic. Many spent years there preparing to resettle in the New World.
The crew of pilgrims was very well received, with their lives revolving around the local Pieterskerk church. Today, this single church in Leiden celebrates Thanksgiving as a callback to its relationship with Plymouth’s first settlers. In other parts of the country, Thanksgiving is celebrated as a Protestant Orthodox holiday.
Saint Lucia
- Celebrated on: First Monday in October
In Saint Lucia, harvest festivals have been celebrated for centuries. Some believe they predate the arrival of European colonists, at which time local Carib natives would have celebrated their annual harvest.
Today’s Thanksgiving celebrations closely mirror their predecessors. Lucians celebrate their natural harvest to show gratitude for the island’s agriculture. Church services are also part of the equation, as in Liberia and Brazil.
