h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We have nationally:

New Years Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Victoria Day (last Monday before May 25), Canada Day (July 1), Labour Day (first Monday of September), Thanksgiving Day (second Monday of October), Remembrance Day (November 11), Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Provincially:

Ontario: Civic Holiday (first Monday of August)

Quebec: National Day (June 24)

Nova Scotia: Natal Day (first Monday of August, except in Halifax where it varies from year to year, usually August or July)

New Brunswick: New Brunswick Day (first Monday of August)

Manitoba: Civic Holiday (first Monday of August)

British Columbia: British Columbia Day (first Monday of August)

Prince Edward Island: Natal Day (by proclamation, usually on first Monday of August)

Saskatchewan: Civic Holiday (first Monday of August)

Alberta: Alberta Family Day (third Monday of February) and Heritage Day (first Monday of August)


Newfoundland:

Celebrated on nearest Monday to:
St. Patrick's Day (March 17)
St. George's Day (April 23]
Discovery Day [June 24)
Memorial Day (July 1)
Orangemen's Day (July 12)
Regatta Day / Civic Holiday (fixed by municipal council orders)
It's a surprise they get anything done!

Northwest Territories: Civic Holiday (first Monday of August)

Yukon: Discovery Day (third Monday of August)

Is that too many?

The Alberta Government threw in Heritage Day and Family day to make sure we got a statutory holiday every month. They're thinking about throwing in an extra one this year to help us all celebrate our centenial as a province.

Holidays are good.

What ever happened to the movement to have a holiday in remembrance of the Montreal Massacre? I was surprised to see that it isn't even aknowledged in Quebec.

*The Alberta Government threw in Heritage Day and Family day to make sure we got a statutory holiday every month.*

What's in June?

I have mixed feelings about it. When I was a kid Remembrance Day wasn't a holiday except that at eleven everybody at work or school or home stopped what they were doing for a minute of silence. Now that it's a holiday, most people just plow right on with their shopping and don't realize they've forgotten to remember until they see the news at six.

I'd rather have something like that on December 6th. (although a national holiday on my birthday might be nice in its way.)

I'm still waiting for Leonard Cohen Day.

What's in June?

Well, would you look at that? No wonder no job I've had has ever lasted past June.



I should have said so that we'd have an average of on a month.

By the time we get Leonard Cohen Day the world will be a just place, full of intelligent and caring souls, so we won't need holidays.

Remembrance Day for me has always had a lot of significance. My father as a vet insisted I get involved and for many years as Cub and Scout I stood attention for that minute at the ceremonies. Later I covered dozens of larger ceremonies as a cameraman on the live broadcasts. I guess all those veterans with tears on their grizzled faces had an effect on me. Two weeks ago I met Canada's last VC survivor, Ernest Alvia "Smoky" Smith for the second time and he was as sharp as a tack and covered in medals in his wheelchair. I kept wondering what stories he could tell and what he thinks of the world now, but I was glad just to meet him.

my favorite holiday is chinese yom kippur. since it's on no calendar i can celebrate it anytime i like, and that's amazingly often.

Just wanted to add that *In Flanders Fields* is read at the ceremony here by a local radio announcer with one of those old time deep announcer type voices. It always sends a shiver up my spine when he pauses after the first verse and then more quietly says:

*We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.*

My company made the decision to not cover the ceremonies five years ago because they didn't generate any revenue. The outcry was so great that they quickly changed their minds and we have a smaller coverage now. I must admit I don't miss the 6:00 start to the day now that I'm not involved but I still stand in my livingroom and look out over the water to downtown where a *Missing Man* formation flies over the cenotaph at 11:00. I must be a sucker for sentiment as well since I usually look at the names on the little cenotaphs in all the little towns and hamlets I work in (when I have the time). Even in Rankin Inlet where it had about 5 names.

riotact, we really should celebrate Chinese New Year here since we make such a big deal about it every year. Yom Kippur not so much...and Chinese Yom Kippur hardly at all!

I like the idea, though!

This is one of my favourite cenotaphs: http://images8.fotki.com/v119/photos/1/173479/1437575/BanffTrip_118-vi.jpg

Bankhead Alberta lost eight in WWI but the town itself didn't last to see WWII. Every year the wreaths still show up on the cenotaph.

every village in france has one of these (actually there is ONE village that doesn't; they sent 3 boys to war and they all came back... the exception that proves the rule)

some villages have 50 or 60 names, sometimes 5 or 6 with the same family name. you look at the village, it seems there aren't even 20 people living there... then you realize that when the war killed all those boys, it killed the village too. and it's the same in village after village after village.