One Holiday Weekend, Two Great Flavors!
Monday is Victoria Day, a federal bank holiday here in Canada. It’s observed the Monday on or before May 24th, Queen Victoria’s birthday, not too far ranging from U.S. Memorial Day weekend.
But there is no such holiday in Québec.
Québec’s banks also get the day off, but it’s for National Patriot’s Day, honoring the heroes of New France (Québec before it was Québec).
This is a relatively new development—Québec has only had National Patriot’s Day since 2003—but it wasn’t like Québec was acknowledging Queen Victoria before that either.
Québec‘s previous May holiday that was not-coincidentally on the same day as Victoria Day was called the Fête de Dollard. It was meant as tribute to Adam Dollard des Ormeaux, who died in mid-May 1660 during a battle to protect Ville Marie (Montréal before it was Montréal) from an attack by the Iroquois.**
**I’m going to leave that story right there, but just casually mention that Indigenous peoples here in Québec have not historically been treated any better than those in the U.S., and the facts of this story may reflect some colonizer bias.
But I digress.
Victoria Day is festive. There are parades and the Trooping of the Queen’s Colors, fireworks, flags, picnics, and an oddly bro-ey tradition called the Hyack Anvil Battery Salute, where stacked anvils with gunpowder in-between are blowed up real good.
Like Memorial Day, Victoria Day is considered the kick-off to summer: ski resorts close, the white clothes come out of the trunk, and gardeners rejoice that there will be no more frost (maybe).
For National Patriot’s Day in Québec, there will be concerts, parades, historical re-enactments and more, to commemorate those who fought for the French in the early days of Québec’s formation. I’m sure there will also be much rhetoric around Bill 96 and Bill 101, the French language laws that have been causing deep chagrin and concern among anglophones here.
It’s odd and TBH a bit scary to be on the wrong side of this national celebration. I appreciate Québec’s chutzpah in flipping off the ROC by honoring its own cultural heroes on a federal holiday—Cesar Chavez Day could be held up as a similar example—but the “nation of Québec” isn’t inclusive of those who speak like me, even those who have been here several generations. Especially those, it seems. They represent the historic enemy.
Quebec’s national separatists are fighting not only to be free of federal control, but also to purge the English language from within its borders. Both Québec and the U.S. expressly grant citizens freedom of expression, but I am étonnée to see that some construe this right as pertaining only to the content, and not the language, of that expression.
We are striving to learn French so we can fit in here, and to be fair the government is pretty generous in providing French classes for immigrants.
But the anti-anglophone movement gives one pause. I know my French will probably never be good enough for me to “pass.” How welcome will my presence in this nation ever be?