To help you practice Shakespeare’s language properly while introducing you to North American culture, LEC invites you to travel to Toronto as part of your language study trip to Canada. But it’s not far from there, just a few kilometers to the northwest, that the festivities are about to reach their peak, since starting today, Tuesday, June 23, 2015, Quebec’s National Holiday is being celebrated. Here’s what you need to know about it right now.
National Day or Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day?
Celebrated by Quebecers both at home and by the province’s diaspora around the world, Quebec’s National Holiday goes by many names. In fact, during a language study trip to Canada, you may hear locals call it Saint-Jean-Baptiste or, more simply, Saint-Jean, or even National Holiday of Quebec.
Celebrating the Summer Solstice
To understand the origins of this date, we must look back to a centuries-old tradition: that of celebrating the summer solstice, when the days are at their longest. Today, many decades after this custom first emerged, the Mouvement national des Québécoises et des Québécois coordinates the festivities.
What can you see on the streets during Quebec’s National Holiday?
Since the 1920s, Quebec’s National Holiday has been a public holiday for all residents of the province. As a result, Quebecers take this opportunity to celebrate, in style, the day that best embodies their heritage. In the streets, you’ll easily come across:
- fashion shows
- bonfires
- fireworks
- concerts
- fleur-de-lis, that is, the flag of Quebec, a white cross on a blue background adorned with four fleurs-de-lis
- speech
- patriotic songs
- contest
As for this side of the Atlantic Ocean, it is not to be outdone, since a parade celebrating Quebec’s National Holiday is organized every year in France by the Quebec General Delegation in Paris !