Queen Victoria
Victoria Day (in French: Fête
de la Reine) is a federal Canadian public
holiday celebrated on the last Monday before May 25, in honour of Queen Victoria's birthday. The date is also,
simultaneously, that on which the current reigning Canadian sovereign's
official birthday
is recognized. It is sometimes informally considered as marking the beginning
of the summer season in Canada.
The holiday has been observed since
before Canada was formed, originally falling on the
sovereign's actual birthday, and continues to be celebrated in various fashions
across the country on the fixed date. In Quebec, the same day was, since the Quiet Revolution,
unofficially known as Fête de Dollard
until 2003, when provincial legislation officially named the same date as
Victoria Day the National Patriots' Day.
It is a statutory holiday
federally, as well as in six of Canada's ten provinces and all three of its
territories.
History
The birthday of Queen Victoria was a
day for celebration in Canada long before Confederation,
with the first legislation regarding the event being in 1845 passed by the parliament
of the Province of Canada to officially recognize May 24 as the
Queen's birthday.[1] It was noted that on that date in 1854,
the 35th birthday of Queen Victoria, some
5,000 residents of Canada West
gathered in front of Government House
(near present day King and Simcoe
Streets in Toronto) to "give cheers to their
queen."[2] On May 24, 1866, the town of Omemee, also in Canada West, mounted a day-long fête
to mark the occasion, including a gun salute at midnight, pre-dawn serenades, picnics, athletic competitions, a display of illuminations,
and a torch-light procession.
Victoria Day, 1854; crowds gather
outside Government House
in Toronto, Canada West (now Ontario)
Following the death of Queen
Victoria in 1901, May 24 was by imperial decree made Empire Day throughout the British Empire, while, in Canada, it became
officially known as Victoria Day, a date to remember the late queen, who
was deemed the "Mother of Confederation".Over the ensuing decades,
the official date in Canada of the reigning sovereign's birthday changed
through various royal proclamations until the haphazard format was abandoned in
1952. That year, the Governor-General-in-Council
moved Empire Day and an amendment to the law moved Victoria Day both to the
Monday before May 25, and the monarch's official
birthday in Canada was by regular vice-regal
proclamations made to fall on this same date every year between 1953 and
January 31, 1957, when the link was made permanent by royal proclamation.
The following year, Empire Day was renamed Commonwealth Day and in 1977 it was moved to the
second Monday in March, leaving the Monday before May 25 only as both Victoria
Day and the Queen's Birthday.
Victoria Day celebrations were
marred by tragedy in 1881, when a passenger ferry named Victoria
overturned in the Thames River,
near London, Ontario.
The boat departed in the evening with 600 to 800 people on board — three
times the allowable passenger capacity — and capsized part way across the
river, drowning some 182 individuals, including a large number of children who
had been with their families for Victoria Day picnics at Springbank Park. The event came to be known as
the Victoria Day disaster.
Provincial
and territorial legislation
Victoria
Day 2010 fireworks display from Ontario Place, Toronto
Most workplaces in Canada are
regulated by the provincial or territorial government. Therefore, although
Victoria Day is a statutory holiday for federal purposes, whether an employee
is entitled to a paid day off generally depends on the province or territory of
residence (with the exception of employees in federally regulated workplaces
such as banks). The status of Victoria Day in each of the provinces and territories
is as follows: It is a general holiday in Alberta, Manitoba, the Northwest
Territories, Nunavut (as "the day fixed by the Governor General for
observances of the birthday of the reigning sovereign"), and Yukon. It is
a statutory holiday in British Columbia, Ontario, and Saskatchewan. Victoria
Day is not a paid public holiday in New Brunswick, but is a prescribed day of
rest on which retail businesses must be closed; Newfoundland and Labrador, but
is a government holiday; Nova Scotia, where it is also not a designated retail
closing day, but is considered a "non-statutory holiday", and Prince
Edward Island, although provincial
legislation defines "holiday" to include Victoria Day. In Quebec, the
province's
legislative assembly passed legislation that dedicated National Patriots' Day,
commemorating the patriotes of the Lower Canada Rebellion
of 1837, to be celebrated on the Monday preceding 25 May. This replaced the Fête
de Dollard, which had been celebrated by Quebecers on Victoria Day since
the 1960s and which commemorated Adam Dollard des
Ormeaux.
Practice
Official protocol dictates that on
Victoria Day the Royal Union Flag is
flown from sunrise to sunset at all federal government
buildings — including airports, military bases, and other Crown owned property across the country —
where physical arrangements allow (i.e. where a second flag pole exists, as the
Royal Union Flag can never displace the national flag). Royal salutes (21-gun salutes) are fired in each
provincial capital and in the national
capital at noon on Victoria Day.
Several cities will hold a parade on the holiday, with the most prominent being that
which has taken place since 1898 in the monarch's namesake city of Victoria, British
Columbia. In nearby New Westminster, the Victoria Day weekend is
distinguished by the Hyack Anvil Battery Salute, a tradition created during
colonial times as a surrogate for a 21-gun salute: Gunpowder is placed between two
anvils, the top one upturned, and the charge is ignited, hurling the upper
anvil into the air. Other celebrations include an evening fireworks show, such as that held at Ashbridge's Bay Beach
in the east end of Toronto, and at Ontario Place, in the same city.
Turkish Canadians march in the 2007 Victoria Day
parade in Victoria, British
Columbia
Across the country, Victoria Day
serves as the unofficial marker of the end of the winter social season, and
thus the beginning of the summer social calendar.[25] Banff, Alberta's Sunshine Village ends its lengthy ski season on
Victoria Day,[26] and, likewise, it is during this long
weekend that many summer businesses — such as parks, outdoor restaurants,
bicycle rentals, city tour operators, etc. — will open. Victoria Day is
also a mark of the beginning of the cottage season, the time when cottage owners may reverse
the winterization of their property.[27] Gardeners in Canada will similarly regard
Victoria Day as the beginning of spring, as it falls at a time when one can be
fairly certain that frost will not return until the next autumn.
The holiday is colloquially known as
May Two-Four in parts of Canada; a double entendre that refers both to the date
around which the holiday falls (May 24) and the Canadian slang for a case of twenty-four beers (a
"two-four"), a drink popular during the long weekend. The holiday
weekend may also be known as May Long or May Run, and the term Firecracker
Day was also employed in Ontario. Victoria Day is referenced in the song
"Lakeside Park"
by Canadian rock band Rush, from their 1975
album Caress of Steel.
The song features the line, "everyone would gather on the 24th of May,
sitting in the sand to watch the fireworks display".
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