Canadians at Table: Food, Fellowship, and Folklore
Page 19
New Year’s Day was also a time for visits to friends, clergy, heads of government and, in many communities, the hosting of levees by mayors, reeves, and heads of state. Lieutenant-Colonel R.B. McCrea (Robert Barlow) of the Royal Artillery gives us a colourful account of this custom on New Year’s Day in St. John’s, Newfoundland (Fish-and-fog land to the author) in 1869:
“Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will towards men,” so rung out clear, musical, and pleasant, the bells of the Catholic Cathedral, on a New Year’s morn, so many of us interpreted the distant harmony, as we made ready to give that greeting to friends and neighbours after the good old French custom, possibly introduced from Canadian sources here. Yet there were still the official visits of ceremony, which we, as in duty bound to our elders and supervisors, prepared to pay. Crossing too over the chequered marble in the hall of Government House, in our visits of respect to the venerable chieftain who, in his red morocco chair of state, looked like one of the Northern Vikings, a tower of strength and power, come back in the form of rare old British gentleman.
“Thank ye, thank ye, gentlemen,” said he, as we offered our congratulations; “I’m pretty weel for an auld man; but I’ll throw a line with ye, Maister Wolfe, after the trout at Cape Race, if this confounded cough will leave me strength enough in May. Ye see, I’m just treating it myself with a little plain water, and a squeeze of orange in it. Have you seen her ladyship? Wheel then go and see her, and ye’ll find a glass of something better to drink our gude Queen’s health.”
Our own good Bishop gave us next his word of goodwill, and we soon found ourselves under the portico of his honour the Chief-Justice, Like his best friend the Governor, Sir Francis sat in his big morocco chair, doing full dignity to the ermine, spite of the merry twinkle of his eye, when he whispered.
“Be off now with your blarney, and get a glass of something with Lady Brady. You see,” he continued, “I’ve a bad cough, and I’m just after moistening my throat with a little water, with a squeeze of orange in it.”
Singular identity of beverage! Fragrant too with a delicate aroma; but I fancied rather that of the lemon than the orange, and the light colouring due to the distilled juice of the cane. A mistake on our parts, no doubt.
And yet it was singular again — very singular, it must be confessed — when we stood in the parlour of the jolly old President of the Council, that he, with his gouty feet swarthed in flannel, should remark —
“And what will ye be taken, mee dear fellows? Is it poort? Ypi’re right, there is worse than that in the world, You see I’m just moistening mee lips with a drop of water, with a squeezed of orange in it; help yourselves.”
Our last visit — last but not least — was to the great man of Fish-and-fog-land … at his palace under the shadow of his great cathedral, on the heights commanding the city. As it happened, we were just in the nick of time to see him in all his glory. Yes there on the steps of his front door, in long, black robes, adorned with the massive gold cross and chain; with attendant priests around, the Bishop stood — a fine, genial, well-favoured man — about to receive the address of congratulation from the “Sons of Fishermen” or the Irish Society.
Then to his Lordship (John Thomas) we paid our respects and congratulations as was right and proper. A hearty reciprocation and a glass of champagne were his return for the compliment.[1]
Traditionally, Canadian families have gathered on New Year’s Day for a hearty meal. Depending on the cultural group, the food has varied, but usually a favourite dish appears. Those favourite dishes can differ dramatically, as just two examples illustrate. The Acadians, who began settling in eastern Canada in the late seventeenth century, favour Poutines Râpées made from raw and cooked potatoes, onions, and either fresh lean pork or salted fat pork, while Greek settlers who arrived in Manitoba in the late nineteenth century baked Vasilopeta, or Basilopita, their New Year’s Bread in honour of St. Basil’s Day. A coin is baked in it, and whoever receives that slice will have good luck in the New Year.
Guests in the dining room of Thomas Montgomery’s Inn could anticipate some Irish favourites prepared by Margaret Montgomery such as cakes and puddings flavoured with spirits on special occasions.
Thomas Montgomery’s Inn, Toronto
The Lunar New Year for Canadians of Chinese ancestry is their biggest celebration and can fall between January 21 and February 20. This occasion is a universal day of new beginnings, and everyone wants to recognize and rejoice, settle debts, ask forgiveness for past sins and misunderstandings, clean the house, have a haircut, and prepare for a celebration with family and friends on New Year’s Eve. Many fundraising dinners are held at this time, with colourful and symbolic food. Tangerines and oranges depict ingots of gold and represent abundant happiness. A fish served whole is a sign of plenty, and if the fish’s head points at you, it is considered exceedingly lucky. Vivid green vegetables represent jade, while peaches are a sign of immortality or long life and are found on figurines and decorations.
A vegetarian dish, Jhi, is always served, and it includes fat choy (fa cai), a black hair-like substance resembling the hair on corn. By itself it does not have much flavour, but it takes on the taste of the dish. Since the ingredient’s name means prosperity, everyone tries to make sure they have fat choy. Lotus seeds are a sign of fertility and an abundance of sons. Chicken stands for liveliness and is almost always served.
While sharing a Chinese meal, the host takes great care in placing the teapot on the table to avoid pointing the spout at a guest. In olden days, if the host wanted to indicate to a guest in attendance that he was on the “hit” list of the host, the pot would deliberately be placed with the spout facing the intended victim as a form of warning.[2]
As spring approaches, all Canadians give thanks for the longer days and brighter sunlight, knowing that the growing season has returned. It would have been when the Sugar Moon appeared in late winter that the First Nations in eastern and central Canada moved to the stands of maple trees to camp and to prepare for the harvest of sweet sap. They began with a ceremony of thanksgiving for the trees and for the first container of sap. Dancing and feasting followed, with traditional foods such as corn soup, beans, and squash being served.
At almost the same time the Maliseet Nation in eastern Canada was giving thanks and celebrating the fiddleheads peeping through the riverbeds and stream banks. These curled fronds of the ostrich fern were a welcome sign of spring and a confirmation that the Great Spirit was again looking after their needs. Feasting with salmon, game, and fiddleheads was a tradition at the spring powwow.
Many tribes and nations attribute special powers, particularly healing ones, to the wild fruits in their area. During winter, the Natives would ask the Great Spirit to renew these life-giving plants, and when they appeared, there were thanksgiving ceremonies and a feast as they ripened. The Iroquois still hold a three-day thanksgiving festival each year before the beginning of the corn harvest. The last full moon in August, known as the Rice Moon, has always signalled some members of the First Nations (Algonquin, Ojibwa, and Northern Cree) to move to their camps near the shallow waters of the northern Great Lakes and the lakes in Manitoba and Saskatchewan to give thanks and to prepare for the wild-rice harvest.
The First Nations were already celebrating the many blessings of the land and the waters and giving thanks as the years unrolled when an explorer/adventurer introduced another thanksgiving celebration in the late sixteenth century. In the summer of 1578, Martin Frobisher attempted for the third time to find the Northwest Passage to Cathay. Sailing under the English flag of Queen Elizabeth I and commanding fifteen vessels with over a hundred colonists and workers, he must have been optimistic about the outcome of his proposed exploration and settlement.
Alas, in the storms, ice, and fog of the northeast Arctic, the vessels were lost for a time and the expedition appeared doomed. Suddenly, by the greatest good fortune, the explorers were reunited and gave thanks for their good fortune:
Here euery man greatly rejoyced of their happie meeting, and welcommed one another, after the Sea manner with their great Ordinance, and when each partie had ripped vp their sundry fortunes and perils past, they highly praysed God, and altogither vpon their knees gaue him due, humble and heartie thankes, and Maister Wolfall a learned man, appointed by her Maiesties Councell to be their Minister and Preacher made vnto them a godly sermon, exhorting them especially to be thankfull to God for their strange and miraculous deliuerancce in those dangerous places, and putting them in mind of the vncertintie of mans life, willed them to make themselues alwayes readie as resolute men to enjoy and accept thankefully whatsoeuer aduenture his diuine Prouidence should appoint.[3]
The Canadian Encyclopedia tells us that Frobisher and his men then tucked into plates of salt beef, sea biscuits, and peas. These would have been standard rations in the sixteenth century on British ships, and the sailors had eaten them many times before, but not with such enthusiasm as they did when giving thanks for their survival. Thus began a long and honourable tradition of giving thanks for one’s blessings throughout the year, a custom that is now practised by almost every cultural group and which today has become an established holiday in many countries.
In 1710 when Port Royal passed into English hands for the last time, the townsfolk and the military held a Day of Thanksgiving. In 1763 the citizens of Halifax commemorated the treaty known as the Peace of Paris that brought an end to the wide-ranging struggles between nations known as the Seven Years’ War or the French and Indian War. In Lower Canada (Quebec), the first thanksgiving was proclaimed on December 22, 1798, and celebrated on January 10, 1799. In Upper Canada (Ontario), the first thanksgiving was proclaimed on May 17, 1816, and celebrated on June 18 to commemorate the end of the war between Great Britain and France. Queen Victoria declared June 4, 1856, a day of thanksgiving in recognition of Britain’s victory in the Crimean War.
The government of the Provinces of Canada created the nation’s first Thanksgiving Day in 1859, with a declaration that asked all Canadians to spend the holiday in “public and solemn” recognition of God’s mercies. On October 9, 1879, the marquis of Lorne, then Canada’s governor general, proclaimed a statutory holiday on November 6 and “a day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed.”
For several years, thanksgiving celebrations in Canada were held in October, November, or December, for a time combined with Remembrance Day, and at another time merged with the late November Thanksgiving date in the United States. None of these were satisfactory, and finally in 1957 Canada’s House of Commons passed legislation making Thanksgiving Day an annual holiday to be celebrated on the second Monday of October, rendering annual proclamations unnecessary.
A combination of factors appears to have shaped and influenced those early thanksgiving celebrations in Canada, including the established traditions of the First Nations of recognizing the changing seasons and the annual cycle of plenty and harvest, thus ensuring food for the long winter ahead. In addition, immigrants from Europe brought with them well-established memories of Harvest Home Festivals in their rural homelands, and no doubt they were impressed by the incredible bounty of fields, forest, and water they found in Canada.
What of the well-known thanksgiving festival ordered by Governor William Bradford in the autumn of 1621 in Massachusetts’s Plymouth Colony? What of the wild turkey, geese, ducks, venison, pumpkins, and corn? What of Chief Massasoit and his ninety braves who were the guests at the feast? Did this event affect the Canadian celebrations of thanksgiving?
According to Andrew Smith, a writer and lecturer and the editor-inchief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, that celebration is an origin myth and an invented holiday created in the nineteenth century and promoted by Mrs. Sarah Hale, editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book. Through her letters, speeches, and magazine articles, she urged a Thanksgiving Day when everyone would celebrate together. As the U.S. Civil War loomed, she believed such a day would hold the country together and managed to convince a nation that the Pilgrim Thanksgiving had actually happened.[4] At the end of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.
Meanwhile, in Canada, clergymen, politicians, and merchants all appear to have tried to shape the tradition and the way in which the day should be celebrated — attending church, travelling for the holiday on trains offering Thanksgiving tickets with reduced rates, enjoying ceremonial amusements, buying “Thanksgiving goods,” or sitting down with family and friends to a Thanksgiving dinner. Church and state were obviously both struggling to control the holiday.
We have very few menus or details to help us reconstruct those early Thanksgiving meals. However, by the middle to late Victorian period, Canadian families seem to have compromised and combined their options in many areas. In 1891 at Woodside, the boyhood home of William Lyon Mackenzie King, future prime minister of Canada, we learn that:
When Woodside was the Kings’ home, Thanksgiving was a special occasion, shared with relatives and friends, to give thanks for the past year’s blessings. As a devout Presbyterian family, the celebration involved church services in Berlin (now Kitchener), a beautiful dinner prepared by Isabel and her daughters, and an evening of fun to top it off perfectly.
The religious service occupied a central part of the Thanksgiving holiday. In Berlin, at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church where the Kings attended, the halls were decorated with fruits and vegetables instead of the standard flowers. The altars, columns, and archways were decked out with a bounty of agricultural produce and samples of the best local baking.
After church services, a hearty dinner was shared with a few close friends and relatives. The Canadian Thanksgiving was greatly influenced by its American counterpart. Women’s magazines of the time offered suggestions on every aspect of the occasion, from decorating to menus. A separate table, as always in Victorian tradition, was set up for the children. Tables were decorated with vases of wheat sheaves, and centerpieces created from autumn fruits and vegetables.
After dinner came fun and socializing. The adults and older King children would dance. At the 1892 Thanksgiving, Jennie learned the minuet, an old-fashioned and therefore novel dance. The children partook in the much-loved activity of taffy pulling.[5]
The Woodside Chronicler suggests the Kings may have enjoyed:
A TRADITIONAL VICTORIAN MENU FOR THANKSGIVING
(As it appeared in The Delineator, late 1800s) Tomato Soup with Macaroni, Celery
Roast Turkey with Stuffing & Cranberries
Mashed Potatoes, Squash
Onions, Olives
Chicken Pie, Lettuce Salad and Dressing
Pumpkin Pie, Minced Pie, Nuts, Raisins
Coffee[6]
As publishing of cookbooks increased in the twentieth century, we can trace those dishes that were favourites at the Thanksgiving table. In 1931, Katherine Lewis Flynn of Prince Edward Island recommends the following menu:
THANKSGIVING DINNER
Oyster Soup, Crisp Crackers
Celery Roast Turkey Giblet Stuffing
Brown Gravy
Mashed Potatoes Turnip Cones
Creamed Onions Spiced Cranberry Jelly
Fruit Salad Thanksgiving Pudding with Sauce
Squash Pie Mince Pie
Assorted Nuts and Raisins
Coffee[7]
In 1941, Nellie Lyle Pattinson in the Canadian Cook Book recommends:
THANKSGIVING DINNER
Colour Scheme — bronze and yellow. Flower Suggestions —
Chrysanthemums, autumn leaves
Crabmeat Cocktail
Celery Gherkins Pickled Pears
Julienne Soup Dinner Rolls
Roast Turkey Cranberry Relish
Fried Egg Plant
Cauliflower Au Gratin Green Beans
Avocado Pear Salad
Bombe Glace Petits Fou
rs
Bonbons Nuts Grapes
Coffee[8]
In 1957, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip were entertained at Rideau Hall by Governor General Sir Vincent Massey and Lady Massey on Thanksgiving Day, Monday, October 14. The meal was served by thirty-five footmen on a banquet table laid with the finest crystal, china, and silver in the land. The menus (bearing a gold crown) detailed the feast:
First on the menu was consommé Flavigny, a delicate chicken broth flavored with curry and enhanced with mushrooms. This was followed by homard à la crème le riz pilaw or lobster with rice sauce.
The third and main course was duckling from Brome Lake, Quebec, and this was prepared with oranges and served with small fried potato waffles.
The fourth course consisted of the hearts of “princess” artichokes with asparagus tips and Hollandaise sauce. For dessert there was “pompadour” ice cream served in drum-like shapes, with dry fancy cookies in gaily decorated baskets.[9]
In 1979, when the Canadian Home Economics Association published A Collage of Canadian Cooking, we were told that
Nova Scotians celebrate the Thanksgiving harvest with bounty from the sea and soil and recommend a Maritime Thanksgiving Dinner. In the early days if fowl was not available, salt herring was substituted, earning it the tongue in cheek name, “Digby Chicks.”
Maritime Clam Chowder
Roast Turkey with Oyster Stuffing
Cranberry Orange Relish Giblet Gravy
Whipped Potatoes Maple Syrup Squash Corn Casserole
Mincemeat Pie Creamy Apple Pie[10]
Oh, Canada! A Celebration of Great Canadian Cooking by Bunny Barss suggests that in Alberta “The pioneers celebrated Thanksgiving with venison, duck, wild turkey, goose, seafood, cornbread, vegetables and desserts made from wild fruits.” She goes on to recommend a modern Thanksgiving dinner suitable for 1987: