I have survived another bank holiday weekend. Bank holidays exist in the UK, of course, but I have slowly come to understand what a Canadian phenomenon they are. They are an important part of life.
Canada has a federal public holiday most months of the year. Christmas and the New Year – although not January 2, since this is not Scotland – are of course part of the framework but the number of seriously observed holiday Mondays throughout the rest of the year came as a surprise to me.
A lot of provinces, including this one, mark Family Day in February, then March or April brings Easter. May included what is officially called Victoria Day, but everybody calls it “the May two four weekend” because it’s always on the weekend closest to May 24. It usually coincides with the start of the warm weather so it’s a pretty popular occasion.
Then we get into June and various provincial holidays before the biggie, Canada Day on July 1. That’s the one we just experienced and, boy, was it great. Even with uncharacteristic showers it was party time and very pleasant indeed. Drink was taken. A beach was visited during a break in the weather. The whole country just relaxed and had a ball.
Now, as we head through the back end of the year, we have another provincial holiday in August, Labour Day – yes, it has a U in it – in September, Canadian Thanksgiving in October and Remembrance Day in November before Christmas comes around again. How very civilised.
All of this is a long way of saying: Canada takes its holiday weekends very seriously. Perhaps it’s because I just came from a UK job which involved shift work spread over six days a week, but I am a bit taken aback by it all. I’ve never seen anything like it. Everybody takes a day off. Most places close. Nobody complains that places are closed because everybody deserves their day off. It is, frankly, great.
I think the main reason that long weekends are important here is the holiday entitlement isn’t so great. Most people seem to get just two weeks of vacation time a year and, although I do a bit better than that in my new job I am working with less holiday time than I had in the UK. That doesn’t seem quite so bad when you know you have an extra day off to look forward to every few weeks.
But that’s not the best bit. The best bit is you’re not alone. Everybody joins in. Imagine a national holiday that everyone appreciates. Goodness knows there isn’t the same culture of complaining here but the culture of celebration, of relaxation and doing yourself a favour by taking a break, is huge.
I could definitely get used to this.