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Thanksgiving (Tyrnican: Erntedankfest) is a Surrowese holiday that takes place on the second Monday of October. Celebrated as an official holiday since the late nineteenth century, Thanksgiving has become the busiest travel day in Surrow. (TBC)

History

Thanksgiving on Surrow is believed to have primarily evolved from harvest festivals that occur in the autumn in Rythene and Tyrnica, with historian Harvey Riberg writing in 1974 that "most of the customs associated Thanksgiving on Surrow can ultimately be traced to the Rythenean harvest supper," with Riberg noting records of fishermen as early as 1501 having a feast at the end of the fishing season before returning home with their catch "akin to that of a harvest supper."

Many historians, such as Dennis Brestrich and Chris Hasard, say that the first recorded Thanksgiving was when Avery Holcot landed on Holcot Inlet in 1486 and thanked God for "protecting their fleet in such wild territory." However, as it took place sometime between June 24th and June 28th, and as it was primarily a religious ceremony where all men in Hoclot's fleet applied clay to their chins to symbolise their strength and overcoming difficulties during their voyage, with no feast being held on that day, other historians such as Donald Molson and Harvey Riberg have argued that it had "no connection or very little connection" to the Thanksgiving that is celebrated in contemporary Surrow.

The first official day of Thanksgiving was in 1759 when Governor TBD declared a day of thanksgiving to be held on "the fourteenth day of October" to celebrate the end of the Eleven Years War between Rythene and Tyrnica. While religious ceremonies were performed on that day, as the day fell on or near the traditional feast at the end of the fishing season, it is believed by most historians, like Dennis Brestrich, Donald Molson, and Harvey Riberg that this "day of thanksgiving" was the first "true Thanksgiving" on Surrow, as it incorporated many of the traditions that are associated with contemporary Surrowese Thanksgiving.

Although successive governors would not declare a day of thanksgiving on that date for over fifty years, records from the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century would consistently refer to the day when the feast occurred in early-to-mid October as Thanksgiving, with Thanksgiving involving entire villages gathering at a local temple to mourn those who were lost at sea before having a feast inside the temple to celebrate the "bounty of the sea."

In 1825, Governor Abner Stedman proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving on the "second Monday of October" to celebrate the success of the Second Rythenean Revolution and to celebrate the "bounty of the sea without which no man may survive," and declared that Thanksgiving "shall forever fall on the specified day." Stedman's proclamation permanently tied the feast to celebrate the end of the fishing season with Thanksgiving, with the only times Thanksgiving was not proclaimed to fall on the second Monday of October being in 1914 and again in 1943 to give thanks for the ending of the First Great War and the Second Great War, with the dates being TBD and October 28th respectively.

In 1950, following Surrow's formal independence from Rythene, Thanksgiving was officially codified as a public holiday falling on the second Monday of October, with the holiday staying on that date ever since.

Customs

• Surrowese people usually travel to their home communities
  • home communities being where their ancestors came from on Surrow (i.e. place where the first fishermen in Surrow on that family set up shop, with the goal being "don't be in Holcot Inlet")
  • busiest travel day of the year, probably a custom for those who can afford it to take a bus to their town rather than take their car (both because gas is pricey but also because bus companies jack up prices on Thanksgiving weekend)
• feast at a community centre involving everyone that can fit in there or at a house of some family member who still happens to live in the outport
  • recent trend to have two or three meals at each community centre to accomodate demand
    • probably an outgrowth of having two meals (a Rythenean meal for the Rythenophones and a Tyrnican meal for the Tyrnophones) in Tern Harbour but is just as likely to be because most Surrowese community centres don't have the space to accomodate thousands of people at once
• meal itself involves:
  • a dance performance
  • reading the names of those who were lost at sea
  • saying grace
  • eating the meal
  • another dance performance

Cuisine

• a lot of fish