Students feasted Monday night at the Bechtel International Center on turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and loads of pumpkin pie. Candles burned brightly on tables and friends clinked their glasses in toasts of gratitude, mingling amidst cheerful music. It was the delectable, quintessential, warming Thanksgiving dinner — Canadian Thanksgiving dinner, that is.

Indeed, Oct. 10 marked the Canadian holiday, and due to the efforts of the Stanford Canadian Club, the Bechtel International Center hosted more than 120 Stanford students who couldn’t venture north for the occasion.

Kiri Heel, a doctoral student in musicology from Victoria, and sophomore Rosie Warren, who hails from Calgary, both say they look forward to Thanksgiving each year because it means good food and good company.

“I just loved having dinner with my family,” Warren says of the Thanksgivings she spent at home.

Thus, both believe that staying connected with fellow Canadians at Stanford as the holiday season begins is important — a sentiment echoed by the 300 students involved with the Canadian Club at Stanford.

According to Canadian Club Prime Minister Michael Dolphin, a Canada native and graduate student in aeronautics and astronautics, “Like any nationality in a foreign country, Canadians like to meet other Canadians here at Stanford. It helps them feel a little more at home.”

Canadian Thanksgiving is one of the Stanford Canadian Club’s biggest events of the year, Dolphin says. And the concept behind the holiday is essentially the same as that behind the occasion in the United States. Both are celebrations of the harvest, he explains, but since Canada’s harvest comes earlier, Canadians plan their feast for the second Monday in October.

As in the United States, students in Canada get the day off. But the Canadian holiday weekend lasts three days, not four, and unlike American families, Canadians tend to limit this holiday gathering to immediate family.

While Monday is the official holiday, many families prepare dinner on Sunday night, and each person delivers a short message of gratitude for the past year.

Sophomore Erica Holland, who is not Canadian, attended Monday’s event at Stanford with her former Canadian roommate.

“I’m excited to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving,” she says. “From what I can tell, it looks like American Thanksgiving.”

Stanford Canadian Club

The Stanford Canadian Club is currently run by Dolphin and Jeff Shragge, also of Canada, who is a graduate student in the Geophysics Department. The club was founded in 1994 by a group of students hoping to strengthen ties within the Canadian community on the Farm. Currently, undergraduates, graduate students and faculty members are involved with the group, Shragge says.

“It’s nice to occasionally meet up with other Canadians who shared similar experiences in their years before coming to Stanford,” he remarks.

Each year, the club organizes cultural events for its members such as the Thanksgiving feast and Remembrance Day — a holiday on Nov. 11 that honors more than 100,000 Canadians who have died in military service.

Club leaders also bring high-profile Canadians to speak on campus and coordinate events with the Canadian Embassy and consulates so that Canadians from the Bay Area can also participate in the group’s activities, according to Shragge. And the Stanford Canadian community also plans random, fun activities like “oh so cliche “Hockey Nights,”” he says.

Canadians comprise the third-largest international group on campus with approximately 500 students. For them, being Canadian is not unlike being American.

“The big differences come with respect to things like healthcare and politics,” Dolphin says, adding that he is shocked by the amount of money he has to spend on health care each year.

For more information of the Stanford Canadian Club, visit their Web site at http://www.stanford.edu/group/cdnclub/.