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Some General Comments on Canadian Holidays

On generally observed legal holidays, all but essential businesses are closed as on Sundays. Canada Day (Jour du Canada) is the former Confederation Day (Jour de la confédération). Good Friday (Vendredi Saint) and Easter Monday (Lundi de Pâques), though both legal holidays for Federal Government and some other agencies, other businesses are closed on only one of the two.

Partially observed holidays are grayed in our calendars. There is the 2 January, on which many businesses seem to be closed, though not necessarily a legal holiday, depending on Province. Fête nationale du Québec is really Saint-Jean Baptiste Day, hence enjoying religious tradition. On Remembrance Day (Jour du souvenir), only banks and federal offices are closed, including the postal services. Boxing Day (lendemain de Noël) is legal holiday, though of importance in the retail sector, and stores open as in the US.

There are additional regional holidays, observed in some Provinces and not in others. An example is the Family Day in February. These holidays are of lesser importance than the legal holidays and not shown in our calendars.

Change to and from summer time: These two Sundays are marked peru brown in our calendars. In principle, these are uniform for the North American continent.

The Canadian legal holidays have, in the past, not been subject to frequent change in date definition. Though they are being calculated by our current formula, it is one that is probably valid for a long time back, compared to the one so frequently corrected in the US. Lacking more information, we treated rather ad hoc the phase-in year for displaying Canadian holidays. Following are the first years for inclusion in our calendars.
New Year's, Easter, Xmas, and Saint-Jean Baptiste: 1608, i.e. Samuel de Champlain's founding of Quebec;
Boxing Day, Thanksgiving, and Victoria Day: 1837, i.e. Victoria becomes Queen of England;
Canada Day: 1867, i.e. British North America Act unites Canadian Provinces Remembrance Day: 1918; Labor Day: 1931;

Enjoy Traveling Canada!
And travel safely!