Victoria Day
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Victoria Day (French: Fête de la Reine) is a Canadian Statutory Holiday celebrated on the Monday on or before May 24 in honour of both Queen Victoria's birthday and the current reigning Canadian Sovereign's birthday.
While Victoria Day is often thought of as a purely Canadian event, it is also celebrated in some parts of Scotland, particularly in Edinburgh and Dundee, where it is also a public holiday.
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[edit] History
Since 1901 the date of 24 May had been celebrated throughout the British Empire as Empire Day. An amendment to the Statutes of Canada in 1952 moved the holiday to the Monday before 25 May. However, over the decades the official date of the reigning Sovereign's birthday changed through various Royal proclamations. For Edward VII it continued on 24 May, but was 3 June for George V, 23 June for Edward VIII (their actual birthdays), and various days between 20 May and 14 June through George VI's reign as King of Canada. From 1953 Empire Day was made the date of Queen Elizabeth II's official birthday in Canada by annual Vice-regal proclamation, the link being made permanent in 1957. In 1958 Empire Day was renamed Commonwealth Day.
In 1977 Commonwealth Day was moved to the second Monday in March, but Canadians continued to celebrate Victoria Day in May.
The reigning Canadian Monarch has been in Canada for their official birthday twice: the first time being on 20 May, 1939, when King George VI was on a coast-to-coast tour of Canada and his official birthday was celebrated with a Trooping the Colour ceremony on Parliament Hill. The second time was when Queen Elizabeth II was in Canada from 17 May to 25 May 2005, to mark the centennials of the entries of Saskatchewan and Alberta into Confederation, when the fact that it was her official Birthday in Canada was completely ignored.
[edit] Celebrations
This holiday may be celebrated with fireworks. This holiday is regarded as the beginning of the unofficial "summer season" in Canada, and is thus the weekend when many businesses, parks, etc., that operate during warm weather months, will open. This makes it a very popular holiday. This long weekend also often signifies the beginning of spring to gardeners in much of the country as it falls around the time when they can be fairly certain frost will not return until the next winter. For much the same reason, because colder parts of the country winterize their recreational cabins and turn off water pumps, this weekend can also mark the beginning of the cottage season with cottagers making their first visits to check and clean their properties.
In some parts of Canada, the holiday is colloquially known as May Two-Four.[1][2] This phrase has two meanings: the holiday always falls on the Monday of or before the birthday of Queen Victoria on the 24th of May, and a two-four is Canadian slang for a case of 24 bottles of beer, the most common packaging of Canadian beer.
The rock band Rush referred to Victoria Day celebrations in their song "Lakeside Park" when they sang of gathering at the park and watching a fireworks display.
[edit] Provincially
In many parts of Canada, the Victoria Day long weekend is known as The May Long Weekend. Traditionally, people celebrate the long weekend by camping, but the unpredictable nature of Canada's spring can bring bad weather such as rain, fog, or even snow. While alcohol and noise are discouraged in First Nation and public-owned parks, privately owned youth-oriented campsites often advertise special events for the long weekend.
In Northern Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, and some other parts of Canada, this holiday weekend is also known as "May Long", or "May Run".
Though, as a national holiday, it is still an official holiday in Quebec, the Quebec National Assembly has dedicated the same day as a provincial holiday: National Patriotes Day (Journée nationale des patriotes), which commemorates the English-Canadian and French-Canadian Patriotes of the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837. Before 2003 the holiday in Quebec was referred to by some as the Fête de Dollard after Adam Dollard des Ormeaux.
[edit] References
- ^ Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Second Edition, 2004
- ^ CBC News Indepth, 5,000 new words
