Victoria Day

This weekend was a long weekend in Canada, because Monday was the Victoria Day, a federal public holiday, which falls on the Monday preceding May 25, or the penultimate Monday in May, if you want to talk fancy.


Happy Victoria Day

It marks the unofficial beginning of the summer season. Yay!

Hello Summer

Originally set up to honour Queen Victoria's birthday, Victoria Day has been since celebrated as the official birthday of Canada's sovereign (no matter what their actual birthday is).

To avoid mentioning the English monarch, Quebec created the National Patriot's Day instead, to be celebrated at exactly the same. It is to commemorate the Rebellions of 1837-1838, which happened in both Upper and Lower Canada. They are not wrong: the rebellions actually contributed more to the formation of Canada than Queen Victoria ever did, even though I doubt that this was the motivation for the separatist Parti Quebecois when they introduced the holiday in 2003.

You see, even though the rebels were defeated (at Saint-Eustache, north of Montreal),


Battle at Saint-Eustache

the rebellion led directly to the reforms of the Act of Union 1840, which led to the creation of Canada with the British North America Act, 1867, all while under the freshly new queen, Queen Victoria.


Dominion of Canada

However, instead of mulling over things past, people just pull out their bikes and kayaks (and Sea-Doo's and sailboats)


SeaDoo

and get on with things SUMMER. Yay!


Garden Deckchair

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