Grenada's Thanksgiving Day: What October 25 Commemorates

A holiday, not a feast

Grenada lists Thanksgiving Day on October 25 among its public holidays, and the Grenada Consulate General in Miami notes that banks, businesses and most shops close. The name is the only thing it shares with the American holiday, which falls on the fourth Thursday of November.

What happened in October 1983

Maurice Bishop led Grenada's revolutionary government. EBSCO's history reference says he was overthrown on October 13, 1983, by a faction led by Bernard Coard, a more radical figure. On October 19, Bishop and others were killed at Fort Rupert, now Fort George, NOW Grenada reports.

On the morning of October 25, President Ronald Reagan announced that U.S. forces had landed alongside contingents from Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica, St. Lucia and St. Vincent. He said the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States had made a formal request, and gave his reasons as protecting up to a thousand Americans on the island, preventing further chaos and helping restore law, order and government institutions. The operation was named Urgent Fury.

After a short occupation, EBSCO says, the allied forces withdrew and Grenada's 1974 constitution was restored. NOW Grenada describes October 25 as the date labeled Thanksgiving Day to commemorate the U.S. invasion, which led to the restoring of democracy and the constitution after the fall of the Revolution.

A debated intervention

The landing was contested abroad. The U.S. vetoed a draft resolution in the UN Security Council, and on November 2, 1983, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 38/7, which deplored the armed intervention, by a vote of 108 to 9 with 27 abstentions, according to the UN Dag Hammarskjöld Library and the United Nations University.

So two framings sit side by side. Reagan, announcing the landing with Dominica's prime minister beside him, presented it as protecting lives and restoring order; a large majority of the General Assembly deplored it. The holiday's name follows the first view.

October 19 joins the calendar

Grenada now marks the earlier date too. In September 2023, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell announced that October 19 would be a public holiday, with the intent of making it permanent, NOW Grenada reported. He said it should be observed in a somber, reflective way, to understand what happened to Bishop and the others.

That leaves Grenada with two October holidays a week apart: one remembering the killings, one marking the landing that followed.

So what do people eat?

We looked for a dish tied to Grenada's Thanksgiving Day and did not find one in any source we could verify, so we are not going to invent one. The turkey dinner belongs to the American holiday a month later. If that is the one you are cooking, try our spatchcocked roast turkey, with more ideas in our turkey hub and Thanksgiving recipes.

Questions people ask