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Traditions
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Holidays and Observances for 2012
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| January 01 | New Years Day (Le jour de l'An) | | January 02 | Day After New Year’s Day (Lendemain du Jour de l'An) | | January 06 | Epiphany (Epiphanie) | | February 15 | National Flag of Canada Day | | February 20 | Family Day (Fête de la famille) | | March 12 | Commonwealth Day (Jour du Commonwealth) | | April 06 | Good Friday (Le vendredi saint) | | April 08 | Easter Sunday (Pâques) | | April 09 | Easter Monday (Lundi de Pâques) | | May 13 | Mother's Day | | May 21 | Victoria Day (La fête de la Reine) | | June 17 | Father's Day | | June 21 | National Aboriginal Day | | June 24 | St. John the Baptist Day (Fête Nationale) | | July 01 | Canada Day (La fête du Canada) | | August 06 | August Civic Holiday (Premier lundi d'août) | | September 03 | Labour Day (La fête du travail) | | October 08 | Canadian Thanksgiving Day (L'Action de grâce) | | October 31 | Halloween | | November 11 | Remembrance Day (Le jour du Souvenir) | | December 11 | Anniversary of the Statute of Westminster (L’anniversaire de la proclamation du Statut de Westminster) | | December 25 | Christmas Day (Noël) | | December 26 | Boxing Day (Le lendemain de Noël) |
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New! Canada Calendars for 2012
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Canadian Christmas Customs
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In the United States and Canada, the Santa Claus traditions are essentially the same, except in Québec and other French speaking areas, with its réveillon and the Père Noël ("Father Christmas" in French). The Celebration of Boxing Day on the day after Christmas Day is a tradition practiced in Canada, as it is in the Commonwealth.
In France and some other French-speaking places, a réveillon is a long dinner, and possibly party, held on the evenings preceding Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The name of this dinner is based on the word réveil (meaning "waking"), because participation involves staying awake until midnight and beyond.
Christmas in Ottawa, Canada. Image courtesy of John Talbot.
The food consumed at réveillons is generally of an exceptional or luxury nature. For instance, appetizers may include lobster, oysters, escargots or foie gras, etc. One traditional dish is turkey with chestnuts. Réveillons in Québec will often include some variety of tourtière.
More information on Réveillon
A tourtière is a meat pie originating from Québec, usually made with ground pork and/or veal, or beef. It is a traditional Christmas and/or Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve dish in Québec, but is also enjoyed and sold in grocery stores all year long. This kind of pie is known as pâté à la viande (literally, meat pie) in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region.
Garniture pour la tourtière du Lac Saint-Jean. Image courtesy of Dominic Genest.
Tourtière is not exclusive to the Canadian province of Québec. Tourtière is a traditional French-Canadian dish served by generations of French-Canadian families throughout Canada and the bordering areas of the United States.
The tourtières of the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean area are slow-cooked deep-dish meat pies made with potatoes and various meats (often including game), which are cut into small cubes. Elsewhere in Québec and the rest of Canada, this variety of tourtière is sometimes referred to in French and in English as tourtière du Lac-Saint-Jean or tourtière saguenéenne to distinguish it from the varieties of tourtière with ground meat.
More information on Tourtière
Boxing Day
Boxing Day is a public holiday in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, as well as many other members of the Commonwealth of Nations, and Greece. It is based on the tradition of giving gifts to the less fortunate members of society.
In Canada, Boxing Day is observed as a holiday, except in some cases for those in the retail business. Boxing Day and the days immediately following are when many retail stores sell their Christmas and retired model products by holding clearance sales.
A Christmas box is, in English tradition, a clay box used in artisan shops. Apprentices, masters, visitors, customers, and others would put donations of money into the box, like a piggy bank, and then, after Christmas, the box would be shattered and all the contents shared among the workers of the shop. Thus, masters and customers could donate bonuses to the workers anonymously, and the employees could average their wages. The habit of breaking the Christmas box lent its name to Boxing Day. The term "Christmas box" now refers generally to a gift or pay bonus given to workers.
More information on Boxing Day
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Listen to The Huron Carol - Elora Festival Singers - Canada
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New! French Canadian Christmas Word Search Puzzle
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Print and solve the new French Canadian Christmas Word search puzzle. Search for words vertically, diagonally, horizontally and backwards. Click here to open a new browser window - use the browser's Print option to print puzzle.
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Victoria Day Customs
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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.
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.
In some parts of Canada, the holiday is colloquially known as May Two-Four. 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.
Victoria Day 2005 firework display from Ontario Place, Toronto.
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.
Though, as a federal holiday Victoria Day remains a holiday in Quebec, in 2003 the National Assembly of Quebec passed legislation that dedicated the same day as Journée nationale des patriotes (National Patriots Day), which commemorates the patriotes of the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837. Before 2003, the holiday was referred to as la Fête de Dollard, after Adam Dollard des Ormeaux.
More information on Victoria Day (Canada)
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Canadian Heritage - Victoria Day
Victoria Day. Sovereign's birthday; Observance in Canada of the Sovereign's Birthday; Sovereign's birthday. The Sovereign's birthday has been celebrated in Canada since the reign of Queen ...
| Holidays: Victoria Day in Canada
Victoria Day is celebrated nationally in Canada. This illustration is based on artwork from ©iStockphoto.com/Michiel de Boer & ©iStockphoto.com/George Cairns | Victoria Canada Day
Victoria Celebrates Canada Day drew nearly 40,000 attendees to the Inner Harbour! Our amazing evening performances, dazzling fireworks and international food festival could not ... | Victoria Day
The history & origin of Victoria Day in Canada. Put some Fun on your calendar! Holiday and Sport Team Schedules for your Microsoft Outlook calendar. | Victoria Day Holiday May 24 2010 in Canada
Information about Victoria Day Holiday dated on May 24 2010in Canada | Victoria Day: Definition from Answers.com
Victoria Day n. The last Monday before May 25, observed in Canada in commemoration of the birthday of Queen |
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Fête nationale du Québec (Saint Jean Baptiste Day)
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Quebec's National Holiday (French: Fête nationale du Québec) is the National Holiday of the Canadian province of Québec. A paid statutory public holiday covered by the Act Respecting Labour Standards, it is celebrated annually on June 24, St. John the Baptist Day.
In Québec, the festivities occur on June 23 and June 24, and since 1978 are publicly financed and organized by a National Holiday Organizing Committee (Comité organisateur de la fête nationale). June 24 continues to be celebrated as a festival of French Canadian culture in other Canadian provinces and in the United States.
Célébration de la Fête Nationale du Québec le 24 juin 2006 au parc Maisonneuve à Montréal. Image courtesy of Francistremblay 18.
In Lower Canada, the celebration of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day took a patriotic tone in 1834 on the initiative of one of the founders of the newspaper La Minerve, Ludger Duvernay, who would later become the first president of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society (SSJB). In the spring of 1834, Duvernay and other Patriotes attended the celebrations of the first St. Patrick's Day, the celebration of the Irish diaspora, in Montreal. This would have given him and others the idea of organizing something similar for all the Canadiens and their friends.
On this June 24, George-Étienne Cartier's "Ô Canada! mon pays, mes amours" was first sung during a grand patriotic banquet gathering about sixty francophones and anglophones of Montreal, in the gardens of lawyer John McDonnell, near the old Windsor Station. The Canada in the song refers to Lower Canada, today's southern Québec. Rounds of toasts went to the Parti patriote, the United States, Ireland, and the Ninety-Two Resolutions.
Two days later, La Minerve concluded: "This holiday, whose goal is to solidify the union of the Canadiens, will not go without bearing fruit. It will be celebrated annually as a national holiday and will not miss producing the happiest results."
More information on Fête nationale du Québec (Saint Jean Baptiste Day)
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Canadian Heritage - Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day
Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day. All across Canada, French Canadians express their cultural pride and rich heritage through colourful parades and lively parties on June 24 marking Saint-Jean ... | Holidays: St. Jean Baptiste Day in Canada
Saint Jean Baptiste Day, held annually on June 24, is the feast day of St John the Baptist, a Jewish preacher who baptized Jesus in the River Jordan. It is a day of celebration in Quebec... | La Fête de la St-Jean
St-Jean Baptiste Festival June 24. Material for this presentation was assembled from a variety of web sites. While the orgin of the holiday in France was the pagan ... | La Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day - History of La Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day ...
La Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day has come a long way. From Pagan ritual to patron saint, learn more about the history behind La Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day in Montreal and all of Quebec ... | Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day
les origines de la fête ... Every year, on the 24th of June, all Québécois get together with friends and family to celebrate their Fête Nationale (National ...
| St-Jean Baptiste Festival June 24
Many other French-speaking villages in other provinces celebrate St-Jean-Baptiste Day and several of them have churches named for the patron saint. | St-Jean-Baptiste celebrations - The Canadian Encyclopedia
Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day A brief description of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, a Québec holiday. From the Canadian Heritage website. Origin of the festival of Saint-Jean-Baptiste | St. Jean-Baptiste Day
ST. JEAN BAPTISTE DAY: Saint Jean Baptiste Day (Fête Nationale) Information . Overview of S t. Jean Baptiste Day (Fête Nationale) Saint Jean Baptiste Day, named Fete ... |
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Canada Day
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Canada Day (French: Fête du Canada), formerly Dominion Day, is Canada's national day, a federal statutory holiday, celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867 enactment of the British North America Act of 1867, which united Canada as a single country of four provinces. Canada Day observances take place throughout Canada as well as internationally.
Kempenfelt Bay, Barrie, Ontario, Canada, during Canada Day celebrations. Image courtesy of DarrenBaker.
Frequently referred to as "Canada's birthday," particularly in the popular press, the occasion marks the joining of the British colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada into a federation of four provinces (the Province of Canada being divided, in the process, into Ontario and Quebec) on July 1, 1867. However, though Canada is regarded as having become a kingdom in its own right on that date, the British Parliament at first kept limited rights of political control over the new country, which were shed by stages over the years until the last vestiges were ended in 1982, when the Constitution Act patriated the Canadian constitution. Canada Day thus differs from Independence Day celebrations in other countries in that it does not commemorate a clear-cut date of complete independence.
More information on Canada Day
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Birthday Celebrations from Canada
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Canadian Thanksgiving Customs
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Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day (Canadian French: Action de grâce), on the second Monday in October, is an annual holiday to give thanks at the close of the harvest season. Although some people thank God for this bounty, the holiday is mainly considered secular.
Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in all jurisdictions, with the exception of the provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. Where a company is regulated by the federal government (such as those in the Telecommunications and Banking sectors), it is recognized regardless of status provincially.
While the actual Thanksgiving holiday is on a Monday, Canadians might eat their Thanksgiving meal on any day of the three day weekend. Thanksgiving is often celebrated with family, it is also often a time for weekend getaways for couples to observe the autumn leaves, spend one last weekend at the cottage, or participate in various outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing, and hunting.
Much like its American counterpart, Canada's top professional football league, the Canadian Football League, holds a nationally televised doubleheader known as the "Thanksgiving Day Classic." It is one of two weeks in which the league plays on Monday afternoons, the other being the Labour Day Classic. Unlike the Labour Day games, the teams that play on the Thanksgiving Day Classic rotate each year.
More information on Thanksgiving (Canada)
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