Victoria Day – Fête de la Reine

The Official Birthday of the Queen of Canada

ELIZABETH II will have had, in her lifetime, more birthdays than Methuselah. This is because, in addition to the actual date of her birth, April 21, 1926, she has several different days which are designated as the Sovereign’s Official Birthday. In Britain, her birthday (which is the official national day of the United Kingdom) generally falls on the first or second Sunday in June and is the occasion of the ceremony of Trooping the Colour. Australia celebrates her birth on the first Monday in June with a public holiday, except for in Western Australia, where it is usually either the last Monday in September or the first Monday in October. This is the day when the latest members of the Order of Australia are announced. New Zealand also holds the Sovereign’s Birthday on the first Monday of June. Fiji is now a republic but Elizabeth II remains ‘Paramount Chief of Fiji’ and so a Monday in June is declared a holiday each year to commemorate her birth.

Here in the New World, the Dominion of Canada celebrates the birth of its sovereign on Victoria Day, the last Monday before (or on) May 24 — Queen Victoria’s actual birthday. The date of the Sovereign’s Birthday in Canada has shifted, from May 24 under Victoria and then Edward VII, to June 3 under George V, June 23 under Edward VIII, and a whole host of different May and June days under George VI. In 1953, Victoria Day was agreed upon as the official birthday of the Queen of Canada and it has remained so ever since.

Des affiches canadiennes de la deuxième guerre mondiale
avec le drapeau officiel du Canada : le « Union Jack » .

En Canada français, le jour ne s’appelle pas Victoria Day mais ainsi Fête de la Reine. Aussi, l’Assemblée nationale du Québec officiellement l’a déclaré Journée national de patriotes : commémoration du mouvement de patriotes du XIXème siècle. Par la grace de Dieu, le Québec a toujours été une monarchie. Le Ligue monarchiste du Canada défend la couronne :

« Depuis les premiers colons, la seule forme de gouvernement canadien a été une monarchie. Les Aborigènes avaient leur propre idée de la monarchie suivant des traditions tribales. Notre monarchie a été Française et Britannique et est devenue, par la suite, distinctement Canadienne. En 1867, les Canadiens ont réaffirmé de leur propre volonté, leur fidélité à la Monarchie. Ils ont continué à le faire lors de chaque étape subséquente de leur développement politique. »

Her Majesty wearing the Order of Canada and the Order of Military Merit.

Victoria Day is not a purely Canadian celebration, however. Edinburgh — Scotland’s beautiful capital — still declares a public holiday for Victoria Day, as does the City of Dundee further to the north. Empire Day is still held on May 24 (rather than the movable feast of Victoria Day), although officially it was changed to Commonwealth Day and shifted to the second Monday in March. The Union Jack is officially flown from government and military buildings in Canada on Victoria Day, Commonwealth Day, and December 11 (the anniversary of the proclamation of the 1931 Statute of Westminster). However in more patriotic parts of Canada it is often flown every day if there are enough flagpoles to accommodate the (national) Maple Leaf flag, the provincial flag, and the Union Jack.

The flag remains an official Canadian flag, denominated the “Royal Union Flag”. The national flag and the provincial flags take precedence over the Union Jack, unless the monarch is visiting, in which case the Canadian Royal Standard takes precedence, followed by the Union Jack, and then the national flag. If the Union Jack is being flown for diplomatic reasons because of the involvement of the United Kingdom, it is given the priority of the flag of a foreign or Commonwealth country and not flown in its Canadian capacity.

God Save the Queen — Vive la Reine

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