Thanksgiving is a harvest festival that originated in England and was brought to the Americas by European settlers. It is now a national holiday in the United States and Canada, and it is also celebrated in other countries around the world, such as Grenada, Liberia, Saint Lucia, Australia (Norfolk Island), Netherlands (Leiden), Philippines and Brazil.
Brazil? Yes. It is that case of case of monkey see, monkey do.
Thanksgiving in Brazil, also known in Portuguese as “Dia de Ação de Graças”, is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, the same day as in the United States. However, it is not an official holiday in Brazil, and it is not as widely celebrated as it is in the US.
Thanksgiving was introduced to Brazil in the early 1940s by Joaquim Nabuco, a Brazilian ambassador to the United States. Nabuco was impressed by the American Thanksgiving tradition, and he believed that it would be a good way to promote unity and gratitude in Brazil.
In 1949, Brazilian President Gaspar Dutra instituted Dia de Ação de Graças as a national holiday. However, it never caught on with the population, and it is now only celebrated by a very small minority of Brazilians.
Those who do celebrate Thanksgiving in Brazil typically gather with family and friends for a feast. The traditional Thanksgiving meal in Brazil is similar to the American Thanksgiving meal, with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. However, there are some Brazilian twists to the meal, such as the use of jabuticaba sauce instead of cranberry sauce.
In addition to the feast, many Brazilians who celebrate Thanksgiving also attend church services to give thanks for the blessings of the past year.
Overall, Thanksgiving is a relatively minor holiday in Brazil. However, it is a growing tradition, and it is likely to become more popular in the future as more Brazilians visit and live in the US.