– picture courtesy of crozier.ca
Ah, let’s get started!
You might want to grab a large coffee or your choice of libation for this post; please feel free to wield questions at any time!
You might remember back in May I wrote a post about, “Victoria Day” in Canada. Here, this is what I am referring to:
The sheer and utter confusion of the holiday is justifiable; however, as they (whoever, “they” are) say, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
Today in my homeland, “The True North Strong and Free”, there is a Civic Holiday. But not everywhere in Canada. Oh, and for those areas of Canada that do acknowledge today as a holiday, the name varies; even in the same province the name can be regionally different.
– picture courtesy of jazz.com
I figured you might require a bit of soothing elevator music at this point in the post program.
The, “Civic Holiday” is observed each year on the first Monday in August. However, it is only known by that name in an official capacity by the governments of Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and the Provinces of Manitoba and British Columbia. It is a statutory holiday (a general holiday legislated through the federal or respective provincial or territorial government) in all the previously mentioned areas except Manitoba. Shall I bring the elevator music back already?
Perhaps I should simplify the jurisdictive jargon and formulate a holiday table without the trimmings:
British Columbia – British Columbia Day (why, how strangely clever);
Alberta – Heritage Day (“optional” civic holiday after being downgraded from a statutory holiday in 1990 when, “Family Day” was introduced as a statutory holiday. If you are not a government worker and take this day off, you are not paid unless it is used as a vacation day);
Saskatchewan – Saskatchewan Day (hhhmmm, I thought I was seeing a pattern there for a second);
Manitoba – Civic Holiday (in name but not necessarily in a long weekend lounging way – please go west and note Alberta’s comments above);
Ontario – I counted ten different names until I arrived at the, “…… and numerous other names in smaller municipalities”, factoids;
Quebec – non férié (I think you can guess what this means);
New Brunswick – New Brunswick Day (perhaps by the time the holidays rolled around from west to east, this lovely Atlantic province found all the cool names had already been taken);
Nova Scotia – Natal Day (break out the tartan-patterned cake, it’s a birthday party for the New Scotland province);
Newfoundland – not on the Monday, but, “St. John’s Regatta”, on the following Wednesday is a Civic Holiday; however, only in the City of St. John’s (well that was a free square on the bingo card for those playing along, wasn’t it);
Prince Edward Island – Civic Holiday (I think they felt that past, present, and future, “Prince Edwards” had more than their fair share of pomp and circumstance as not to warrant a holiday named after them: well done, “Spud Islanders”;
Labrador (not just the name of a friendly Fido); and no, they don’t celebrate this holiday; I suspect they are much too busy trawling for this evening’s dinner;
Yukon – nope; but to be fair, it’s much too bloody cold to be doing anything but keeping their home fires burning;
Nunavut – Civic Holiday (I see my theory of holiday relativity to cold has been pummeled with snowballs); oh, and congratulations on becoming a chip off the old Northwest Territorial ice block in 1999 to gain your own territorial turf; and
Northwest Territories – Civic Holiday (today’s high is 24C, that’s 75F; they are just fine for civic, festive fun, aren’t they?)
– photo courtesy of pinterest.com
Likened to my offer of jumbo-tron sized aspirin in the Victoria Day post, I figured you could use a dose (or two) so I combined them into one, happy cocoa covered remedy!
Similarly as with the beginning of this bewildering Civic whatever post, I think these two folks have their votes clearly stated:
– picture courtesy of media.cagle.com
Cheers to, “Who Cares Day”!!!
The Chicago Files 