Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Victoria Day - May Long Weekend

I'm still trying to figure out the holidays here and although Wikipedia helps some, it does still confuse me some.  There are national holidays along with provincial and territorial holidays although even the national holidays can vary by province. 

Back in February, there was Family Day which is an Alberta holiday (along with several other provinces) but Wade did not get it off probably because it wasn't a national holiday.  Wade did get Good Friday off but federal employees also get off Easter Monday which he did not get off.  He did get this last Monday off for Victoria Day.  Most people refer to it as "May Long Weekend" so I wasn't even sure what the holiday was until it got closer and I saw ads.

Victoria Day is celebrated on the Monday on or before May 24th and is in honor of Queen Victoria's birthday (the Queen when Canada established dominion status in 1867).  It is also the date that the current reigning Canadian sovereign's official birthday is recognized.  The confusing part is that it sounds like not all of Canada celebrates Victoria Day.  It is not a holiday in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador plus some of Quebec celebrates a different holiday.  On thing that wasn't confusing is that Victoria Day is informally considered the beginning of the summer season in Canada (similar to Memorial Day) although to me it doesn't seem much like the start of summer since the average high temp is around 70F plus the kids are still in school and will be for most of June.  

As for us, we had a great 3 day weekend.  We made a trip just north of Edmonton to Jurassic Forest, attended a BBQ, playing mini golf, and had a picnic in a park. 

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