Thanksgiving in Hawaii

Photo of Makahiki Luau courtesy FreeImagesLive.co.uk

The traditional Hawaiian thanksgiving celebration is called Makahiki.  Makahiki lasts from November through February, and during this time all are forbidden to engage in work and war.  It is a time of celebrating harvests with religious ceremonies, luaus, and competitive games.

For more information see the HawaiiHistory.org website.

Thanksgiving in the United Kingdom

Photo courtesy FreeImagesLive.co.uk

There is a Thanksgiving Day of sorts in the United Kingdom known as Harvest Day.  It is primarily a rural celebration held on a Sunday in September near the harvest moon.  It is not a national holiday.  Churches are decorated with autumn foliage, fruits, and vegetables, and communities gather together for a dinner.  Turkey is not an obligatory part of the meal as it is in Canada and the United States. 

For more information see the Thanksgiving-Day.org and Thanksgiving-Day.biz websites.

Thanksgiving in Canada

Photo courtesy FreeImages.co.uk

In Canada, Thanksgiving is the second Monday of October, and constitutes an official holiday and three-day weekend.  Families usually gather together on any one of the three days of the long weekend for a big meal that includes turkey.  In Quebec, English-speaking families observe this tradition, but the French-speaking families usually do not.  Many Canadian cities have Thanksgiving parades.

The Thanksgiving Day as it is currently celebrated was made official by the government in 1957 as a day of thanks to God for the year's harvest.  However, there has been a Thanksgiving Day of some sort or another in Canada since April 15, 1872, when this day was celebrated in order to give thanks for the recovery of King Edward VII from a serious illness.

For more information, see the ThanksgivingDay.org website.

Thanksgiving in Germany, Austria, & Switzerland

Photo of church altar Erntedank display
courtesy Elena Kortels and German-Way.com

Thanksgiving celebrations in Germany and other German-speaking countries occur in September or October, sometimes as late as November, and are not "official" holidays like they are in the United States.  In both large cities and small towns, Thanksgiving, called Erntedankfest (Harvest Thanksgiving Festival), is a celebration hosted by Christian churches.  In rural towns there may also be a parade and a country-fair type of celebration, including dancing and the crowning of a harvest queen.  Unless they live in rural areas or are church-goers, many Germans only experience Erntedankfest by seeing it on television.

For more information, see the German-Way.com website, and the German Holidays page of the Tulane University website.

Pumpkin-Shaped Cake!

You can make a cake that looks like a pumpkin by baking two bundt cakes and placing one upside down on a plate, and placing the second one on top with the flat sides together--clever!

For recipe and assembly, click here for the chocolate version pictured below. It is number 4 in the slide show.

For a similar recipe and assembly, click here for a vanilla version with different icing.