Thanksgiving Traditions from Around the World
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Over the centuries, many thanksgiving traditions have originated from different countries all over the world celebrating their gratitude for rich harvests.
There was an ancient belief that crops enclosed spirits that caused them to grow and die. It was believed that when the crops would be harvested, these spirits would be released. There were harvest festivals celebrated for defeating these crop spirits.
In this section about thanksgiving traditions, we’ve brought together different thanksgiving traditions from around the world.
Here's a separate page in which we've written about interesting thanksgiving traditions just in the United States...
If we trace way back to the ancient Greeks, we recall their harvest festival called “Thesmosphoria”, which honored the goddess of grains, Demeter, each and every autumn. On the third day of the festival they would offer the goddess Demeter gifts of fruit, cakes, corn, etc. and hoped that their gratitude to Demeter would reward them with a rich harvest.
The ancient Romans had their own thanksgiving traditions and harvest festival, which they called “Cerelia”. This was a festival that honored their goddess of corn, Ceres (a nice thing to remember, the word “cereal” comes from the word “Ceres”). Throughout this festival there were games, music, sports, parades and fruits and harvest were offered to the Goddess Ceres.
The ancient Egyptians also had their own thanksgiving traditions. They believed that there was a spirit that lived in their corn. When they harvested their corn they pretended to be grief-stricken and wept so to try and deceive the spirit. The ancient Egyptians honored their god of vegetation and fertility, Min, with their own harvest festival. Different from other festivals, the Egyptian’s festival was held during the springtime (the harvest season for the Egyptians). The Pharaoh would take part in a parade and later hold a great feast where dancing, music, and sports were all part of the celebration.
The ancient Chinese celebrated “Chung Ch’ui”, their three-day harvest festival, which would come with the full moon that fell on the fifteenth day of the eighth month (the day considered as the moon’s birthday). Their belief is that during the festival, flowers would fall from the moon and whoever would see the flowers would have good fortune. During this time, families sit down to have a Thanksgiving meal with harvested fruits, a roasted pig, and most traditional “moon cakes”, which are round and yellow like the moon.
The Jews also celebrate thanksgiving traditions during their harvest festival that last for seven days, called “Sukkot”. Sukkot is also known as “Hag HaAsif”, which means “The Festival of Ingathering”. The word “Sukkot” is plural for the word “sukkah”, which is a hut that is easy to assemble and take apart, made from branches. A sukkah was known to be the huts the ancient Israelites lived in during their 40 years of dwelling in the desert. Nowadays, fruits and decorations are hung in the sukkah. On the first two nights of the Sukkot holiday, families sit inside the sukkah and eat together.
England had festivities where it was a custom to choose a “Harvest Queen” who was decorated with grains and fruits. Then on Thanksgiving Day, the Harvest Queen would parade through the streets in a carriage that was drawn by white horses.
Thanksgiving in Canada is celebrated on a different day than in the US, on the second Monday in October (the observance of the day began in 1879). Canadians sometimes call the Thanksgiving in the US as “Yanksgiving” to distinguish it from the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday and their own thanksgiving traditions.
