Canada Civic Holiday

The August Civic Holiday is a mess . Most of the provinces celebrate the first Monday of August as a holiday whether mandatory or optional for employers, but the names are all over the map , It's Natal Day in Nova Scotia and Price Edwards Island, British Columbia Day in British Columbia and Heritage Day in Alberta.

In Ontario, municipalities have named the day after individuals, be it John Graves Simcoe in Toronto, Colonel By in Ottawa, Joseph Brant in Burlington or George Hamilton (no, not the tanned Hollywood actor) in Hamilton. And there’s certainly something to be said for personifying the end of a long weekend (thanks, J.G.S., much obliged).

But let’s not be naive. Getting a statutory holiday named after you is not easy, and keeping it is even harder.

Queen Elizabeth II was born on April 21, but Canada’s official recognition of her birthday falls in late May on a day named after her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. Victoria Day retained that name in Canada after the queen’s death in 1901, even as the rest of the Commonwealth went with Empire Day. Similarly, Beatrix of the Netherlands, who abdicated earlier this year, was born on Jan. 31, but her holiday was held on April 30, the birth date of former queen Juliana.

And when Elizabeth did get her own day – a public holiday in Hong Kong – her name was expunged after Britain handed Hong Kong over to China in 1997. The new name? The Hong Kong Special AdministrativeRegion Establishment Day.

This wouldn’t happen in Japan, which ensures that each new emperor – currently Akihito – is honoured with a national holiday on his actual birthday. And it certainly wouldn’t happen in North Korea, where every beloved and exalted leader is blessed with a personal secular holiday, or two: Jan. 8 for current leader Kim Jong-un, Feb 16 and 17 for father Kim Jong-il, and April 15 and 16 for grandfather Kim Il-sung.

The tradition of naming days after individuals dates from the early centuries of organized religion, when every saint or spirit worthy of his or her feast day could count on a nod. (The word holiday comes from the Old English halig, holy.) Even now, you can’t stroll through the calendar without tripping over St. Patrick, St. George, St. David, and St. Valentine – and that’s without mentioning such powerhouse holidays as Christmas (literally, the mass of Christ), the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed (celebrated in most Muslim nations in the third month of the Islamic calendar) and the birthday of Shakyamuni Buddha (varying dates in May in South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India and Indonesia).

Source: theglobalandmail

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