Victoria Day

Victoria Day
A portrait in Ottawa City Hall of Queen Victoria, first sovereign of a confederated Canada.
Official name	English: Victoria Day French: Fête de la Reine
Also called	May Two-four, May Long, May Run
Observed by	Canadians
Type	Historical, Cultural, Nationalist
Date	Monday on or before 24 May
2009 date	18 May
2010 date	24 May
Celebrations	Fireworks, parades
Related to	Reigning sovereign's birthday

Victoria Day 2005 fireworks display from Ontario Place, Toronto.

Victoria Day (in French: Fête de la Reine), colloquially known as May Two-four, May Long, or May Run is a federal Canadian statutory holiday celebrated on the last Monday before or on 24 May, in honour of both Queen Victoria's birthday and the current reigning Canadian sovereign's official birthday, and is also considered an informal mark of the beginning of the summer season. It 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 of the first Monday on or before 24 May. However, since the Quiet Revolution in Quebec, the same day was unofficially known in the province as Fête de Dollard until 2003, when provincial legislation officially named the same date as Victoria Day the National Patriots' Day.

History

King George VI in Ottawa, Ontario, on his official birthday, Victoria Day 1939.

Queen Elizabeth II in Edmonton, Alberta, on her official birthday, Victoria Day 2005.

The birthday of the monarch was a day for celebration in Canada long before Confederation, with the first legislation regarding the event being in 1834 passed by the parliament of the Province of Canada to officially recognize 24 May 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] and on Victoria Day 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.^[3]

Following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, 24 May was by imperial decree made Empire Day throughout the British Empire, while, over the ensuing decades, the official date in Canada of the reigning sovereign's birthday changed through various royal proclamations: for Edward VII it continued by yearly proclamation to be observed 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. The first official birthday of Elizabeth II, whose actual birthday is 21 April,^[4] was the last to be celebrated in June; the haphazard format was abandoned in 1952, when the Governor-General-in-Council moved Empire Day to the Monday before 25 May, and Elizabeth's official birthday in Canada was by regular vice-regal proclamations made to fall on this same date every year between 1953 and 1957, when the link was made permanent.^[1] 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 24 May solely as Victoria Day.

The reigning Canadian monarch has been in Canada for his or her 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.^[5] The second time was when Queen Elizabeth II was in Canada from 17 May to 25 May 2005, to mark the centennial of the entries of Saskatchewan and Alberta into Confederation; no events were organized to acknowledge this fact.

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.^[6]

Practice

Official protocol dictates that on Victoria Day, the Royal Union Flag must be flown from sunrise to sunset at all federal 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).^[1] 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.^[7][8] Other common 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. As a federal holiday, Victoria Day remains a holiday in Quebec. However, in 2003, the province's legislative assembly passed legislation that dedicated the same day as National Patriots' Day, which commemorates the patriotes of the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837. 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.

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.^[9] Banff, Alberta's Sunshine Village ends its lengthy ski season on Victoria Day,^[10] 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.^[11] 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 some parts of Canada;^[12][13] a double entendre that refers both to the date on which the holiday usually falls (24 May) and the Canadian slang for a case of 24 beers (a "two-four"), a drink popular during the long weekend. The holiday weekend may also be known as May Long or May Run.^[14][15] The term Firecracker Day' was also employed in Ontario.^{[citation needed]}

See also

Look up Victoria Day in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Public holidays in Canada
• Commonwealth Day
• Monarchism in Canada

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Victoria Day

• Department of Canadian Heritage website entry for Victoria Day
• Burnaby, B.C., website entry for Victoria Day
• Kingston, Ontario, website entry for Victoria Day
• Victoria Day Festival