Victoria Day
| Victoria Day | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Official name | English: Victoria Day French: Fête de la Reine |
| Also called | May Two-four, May Long, May Run |
| Observed by | Canadians (Canada) |
| Type | Historical, Cultural, Nationalist |
| Celebrations | Fireworks, parades |
| Date | Monday on or before May 24 |
| 2024 date | |
| Related to | Reigning sovereign's birthday |
Victoria Day (French: Fête de la Reine) is a Canadian statutory holiday celebrated on the last Monday before or on 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, as well as in the Cayman Islands, where it is also a public holiday.
History
The birthday of the monarch was a day for celebration in Canada long before confederation. On May 24, 1854, 5,000 residents of the Canada West gathered in front of Government House (near present day King and Simcoe Streets, in Toronto) to "give cheers to their queen."[1]
Since 1901, the date of May 24 was known throughout the British Empire as Empire Day. An amendment to the Statutes of Canada in 1952 moved the holiday to the Monday before May 25. However, over the decades the official date of the reigning sovereign's birthday changed through various royal proclamations. For Edward VII, it continued on May 24, but was June 3 for George V, June 23 for Edward VIII (their actual birthdays), and various days between May 20 and June 14 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 his or her official birthday twice: the first time being on May 20, 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 May 17 to May 25, 2005, to mark the centennials of the entries of Saskatchewan and Alberta into Confederation; no events were organized to acknowledge this fact.
In the neighbouring United States, Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday of May, so it never coincides with Victoria Day. When May 24 is a Monday, Memorial Day is May 31. When May 24 is a Sunday, Memorial Day is the next day, but Victoria Day is placed on May 18.
Celebrations
Several Canadian cities hold a parade in honour of the holiday, with the most famous being in the monarch's namesake city of Victoria, British Columbia. This holiday is also often celebrated with fireworks shows.
Victoria Day 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 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 autumn or winter. For much the same reason, because colder parts of the country winterise 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.[2][3] This phrase has two meanings: the holiday always falls near the date of May 24, and a two-four is Canadian slang for a case of 24 bottles of beer, a common packaging of the drink in Canada (and a common purchase of those planning to celebrate the weekend).
The rock band Rush referred to Victoria Day celebrations in their song "Lakeside Park" when they sang of gathering at Lakeside Park (Port Dalhousie) and watching a fireworks display.
Provincially
In many parts of Canada, the Victoria Day long weekend is known as the May Long Weekend. In Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and some other parts of Canada, this holiday weekend is also known as May Long, May Run (mainly in Timmins, Ontario, and some other regional communities of Northeastern Ontario), or May Two-Four, as above.
Though, as a federal 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 Québec was referred to by some as the Fête de Dollard, after Adam Dollard des Ormeaux.
References
- ^ Killbourn, William; Toronto Remembered; Soddart Publishing, Toronto; 1984; Pg. 105
- ^ Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Second Edition, 2004
- ^ CBC News Indepth, 5,000 new words