Page 3715 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 21 November 2006
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providing opportunities for social inclusion and community participation by older Canberrans.
The ACT government is the major sponsor of the Canberra Retirement and Lifestyle Expo that is being held this week at EPIC.
MR SPEAKER: The time for this discussion has expired. The discussion is concluded.
Adjournment
Motion (by Ms Gallagher) proposed:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
Thanksgiving Day
Ainslie football and recreation clubs
MR MULCAHY (Molonglo) (4.37): It was only in recent weeks that we saw extensive media coverage of the remarks by the media proprietor Mr Rupert Murdoch on the occasion of the inaugural dinner of the Australian American Association in Sydney. The interesting thing in those remarks was that he made a very clear appeal to the public that, irrespective of what you thought of the complexion of the Bush administration or the application of American policy in Iraq, there were many positive benefits out of the relationship between Australia and the United States. He implored the population here to appreciate the value of that relationship, which extends across and has extended across some centuries, which has served us well at times when this nation was under threat and which has served us very well in economic terms as a major trading partner.
Whilst I have made mention of Thanksgiving before, I again visit that matter tonight in the context of hearing Mr Murdoch’s advice to the Australian people. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. In the ACT, it will be celebrated by the Australian American Association tonight, with a dinner at the Commonwealth Club. I commend Bronwyn Halbisch from the national organisation and Joanne Allen from the ACT chapter of the Australian American Association for their work in an important, well-established association which does so much to foster goodwill between the two countries and for the splendid events that they put on. I am sure tonight will be no disappointment.
Thanksgiving Day is an annual, one-day holiday to give thanks, traditionally to God, at the close of the harvest season. In the United States, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. In Canada, it is celebrated on the second Monday in October. In the United Kingdom, Thanksgiving is another name for the harvest festival held in churches across the country on a relevant Sunday to mark the end of the local harvest, though it is not thought of as a major event, compared to Christmas or Easter, as it is in other parts of the world.
The tradition was taken to North America by early settlers and became much more important. They had their first official Thanksgiving in Virginia colony on 4 December 1619 near the current site of the Berkeley Plantation, where celebrations are held each year in November. The pilgrims set apart a day to celebrate at Plymouth
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