---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <fleetwood_macncheese@...> wrote :
I mentioned about Thanksgiving, being a less commercial holiday than our others, and am curious if a similar holiday exists in the other countries represented here? In other words, one not tied to religion or patriotism, or a great person, but simply to give thanks for what we have. Canadian thanksgiving is pretty much the same but we don't have the big shopping thing the day after. Canadians tend to be a bit more understated than Americans in most things they do on a large scale - oh, except for the hockey thing. That is religion here and considered their own invention although I think some arguments exist that Holland invented the first hockey sticks and the idea of hitting objects around a frozen surface.