Victoria Day long weekend

Hi all,

This one is especially for my American friends in the crowd, today is Victoria Day, so we have a long weekend here in Canada. Though this seems as common to me as a $1 and $2 coin, I figured I'd better explain this for my non-Canadian homeys in the reading audience. :)

Props to Wikipedia for this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Day). Hehe I like the explanation of why this weekend in called the "May 2-4" weekend. Haha, so well explained. Awesome. Beer and Camping. That's really all there is to it. :) Oh yeah, and lots of fireworks.

Victoria Day is a Canadian Statutory Holiday celebrated on the Monday on or before May 24 in honour of both Queen Victoria's birthday and the current reigning Canadian Sovereign's birthday. While Victoria Day is often thought of as a purely Canadian event, it is also celebrated in some parts of Scotland, particularly in Edinburgh and Dundee, where it is also a public holiday.

This holiday may be celebrated with fireworks. Some will use Victoria Day as a day to celebrate the Monarch's birthday, including official events organized by local government, or monarchist groups, but to the majority of Canadians the day is simply a holiday off from work, with little specific meaning.

This holiday is regarded as the beginning of the unofficial "summer season" in Canada, and is thus the weekend when many businesses, parks, etc., that operate during warm weather months, will open. This makes it a very popular holiday. This long weekend also often signifies the beginning of spring to gardeners in much of the country as it falls around the time when they can be fairly certain frost will not return until the next winter.

It is known colloquially as "May two-four weekend". The phrase has two meanings, the first is the fact that it always falls on or before 24 May, and secondly, those who celebrate will often get together to drink beer (a two-four is a case of 24 bottles of beer). Note that the holiday may be referred to as "May two-four" even if it falls as early as May 18.

Enjoy the long weekend everyone!!