Happy Victoria Day!

Hitachi_Solutions_Logo by Hitachi Solutions 3 minute read

It’s May. The gray is gone – well mostly. Flowers are beginning to bloom, the grass is a little greener, and the sunshine feels much warmer. This makes sense because May 22nd is Victoria Day in Canada. And Victoria Day signifies the shift in barometric. On this day as the sun sets and fireworks light up the night sky, Canadians know it’s time to ring in the new season. Summer has arrived.

It was in 1845, that Victoria Day first became ‘a thing’ in Canada.  It’s namesake? Why British Queen Victoria of course, whose birthday is May 24th. The significance?  It was Her Majesty who held the throne and was the reigning British monarch at the time when Canada gained its independence from Britain and began its journey as a country of its own. Little Vic, a nickname coined for her small size and youth, was also responsible for declaring Ottawa the nation’s capital.  

Hitachi Solutions North America pauses on this day to celebrate our Canadian colleagues and customers. Join us in toasting our Canadian friends’ 156th year of rebirth and autonomy!

Here are some tidbits about Canada and Victoria Day.

Did you know?

  1. The first voyagers to come to Canada and settle were most likely Vikings. In the 10th century – around 1000 AD., they landed along the Atlantic coast, on Baffin Island.
  2. At the age of 18, Alexandrina Victoria became the Queen of England after her uncle, King William IV, suffered a heart attack and died. Little, but mighty – 5 foot tall, Victoria was the first member of the Royal family to live at Buckingham Palace.
  3. The second largest country in the world – Canada is the approximate size of the total square footage of all 81,975 Walt Disney Worlds combined.
  4. Molson Coors Canada is the oldest brewery in North America, established in 1786.
  5. Queen Victoria is rumored to have spearheaded the tradition of brides wearing white on their wedding day, rather than choosing their best dress out of their closet, no matter the color.
  6. According to a 2022 report conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Canada is the most educated developed country in the world. 59.96% of the population has a tertiary education and 99% of all Canadians can read and write.
  7. Residents of Churchill, Manitoba in Canada regularly leave their car doors unlocked to help their neighbors escape an accidental and unfortunate face-to-face encounter with a polar bear.  The city of Churchill has the largest number of polar bears in the world.
  8. Canada is the only country in the world to commemorate Queen Victoria with a federal holiday. Victoria Day is celebrated annually on the Monday before May 24th – Queen Victoria’s birthday.