Thursday, May 19, 2011

Victoria Day

Photograph of Queen Victoria, 1882

Next Monday will be Victoria day, and I am so looking forward to it!

Well, ever since I came to Canada, every year I would get one day off of school because of Victoria Day. However, even though it was a much-appreciated holiday, I never really knew why this holiday was for and I never really bothered to learn more about this holiday until today. So shame on me.

Anyway, the origin of Victoria Day is quite simple—it's Queen Victoria's birthday! Her birthday was on May 24th, and her birthday was first celebrated in 1845.

In 1901, Queen Victoria died, and May 25th became Victoria Day in Canada. It became the day for Canadians to remember the "Mother of Confederation."

Then, in 1952, Victoria Day was changed to being the last Monday before May 25th every year. This has not been altered since then.

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I don't  know why they made it the last Monday before May 25th every year. I am guessing, though, that it was so that people could have long weekends.

4 comments:

  1. Wow, that was a rather bad summary of the origin of Victoria Day...

    ReplyDelete