Monthly Musings: Celebrating Victoria (Memorial) Day Weekend

It's time for another Monthly Musings with Holly at Pink Lady and Patty at Good, Better, Best. These two bloggers host such a fun link up and I always enjoy joining in with them. This month we are talking about Memorial Day Weekend, but, since I live in Canada, I'm going to write about Victoria Day, which is the Canadian long weekend in May, and which we celebrated this past weekend.

First, a little history: Victoria Day celebrates the birthday of Queen Victoria, who was Queen Elizabeth's great-great- grandmother. Since Canada is part of the British Commonwealth, Queen Victoria's birthday (May 24) was picked as a national holiday in the 1850s. It was meant to help unite the French and English in a mutual celebration. Victoria Day falls on the Monday between May 18th and May 24th. It is considered the unofficial kick off to summer in Canada. We are the only country which celebrates Victoria Day. It is usually a huge day for fireworks although there aren't many official celebrations, or specific ways people spend the holiday. It is also known as the "May 2-4 weekend" since it happens around May 24th. With all that preamble out of the way, now on with the link up :)

1) How are you spending Victoria Day weekend?

We often spend this weekend doing yard work. This past weekend, however, we visited friends in Toronto, stayed overnight at a hotel, and went to a Blue Jays game on Sunday. Then on Monday, we did a few errands (I bought all my annuals!!!) and went out for ice cream. We ended the weekend with a BBQ.

 

Enjoying the Jays' game with each of my family members this past Sunday.

On Monday we went out for ice cream and Sam got an ice cream taco -- two scoops of ice cream, two toppings, and whipped cream in a taco shaped cone.

2) Favourite ice cream?

 I love going to our local ice cream shop and enjoying their creative flavours. My favourite flavour of theirs is lavender honey. However, this past weekend I got their raspberry lemon and I am fan of that one too!

Enjoying ice cream from our favourite local ice cream shop.

3) Victoria Day travel or hang at home?

While many people we know go camping for Victoria Day weekend, we do not. We don't have traditional ways we spend this weekend, other than doing yard work, but we do often try to catch a Blue Jays game.

left: doing yard work; right: a Jays game with our best friends last year to kick off the May long weekend!

4) Burger, hot dog, both?

If I'm at a baseball game, I love a hot dog, but at home I always have burgers.

Hot dog at a baseball game -- sooooo good!!!

5) Favourite cookout side?

I really love a good salad -- a Greek pasta salad, chickpea salad (recipe below), or some good grilled veggies.

6) White before or after Victoria Day?

I start wearing my white t-shirt around Easter. I've never thought of the May 2-4 as being the date to start wearing white. And I had a scarring experience with white pants in Grade 10 so I never wear white pants.

7) Victoria Day traditions?

Doing yard work! Hahaha! While many people set off fireworks or go camping, those are not traditions we embrace. For us, it's basically a weekend to chill before we start the final push of the school year. (School ends for us at the end of June so this long weekend gives us a chance to gear up for that.)

In looking at my pictures, I realized I often buy all my annuals around Victoria Day. I don't always plant them, but this is around when I purchase them.

This year I bought 90 individual plants. Many of them will go in my planters but about half will go in flower beds. Last night, however, they all got moved into the garage because we had a frost warning. And this is why I usually don't plant them for a week or so yet!

Annual purchases from previous years!

8) Share a summer recipe.

One of my favourite summer recipes I got from a dietician at our grocery store. Take 1-2 cans of chicpeas and rinse them. Toss them in a bowl with a good sized grated carrot, a good handful (around 1 cup, maybe) of chopped cucumber, a chopped pepper or two (I often use a combination of red, orange, or yellow ones), chopped feta cheese (again, around a cup?), 2-3 chopped green onions, and a good handful (10-15) of mint leaves -- chopped up. Mix 1/2 lemon juice and 1/2 olive oil together. (I use maybe 1/2 cup of each). Add 1 tsp cumin and 1 tsp honey. Mix together and pour over the salad. This salad usually lasts us about 5 days in the fridge and Dave, Sam, and I all love it.

I wish I had some of this now. It's one of my favourite salads!

9) Parades, fireworks, or cook outs?

I hate fireworks with a passion (thanks to living in a war zone -- read more about that here if you want), so I will definitely go for cook outs for this one. There's not much tastier than a meal cooked mainly on the BBQ.

10) Show us your red, white, and blue!

While Canadians tend to wear red and white (our national colours) for Canada Day, I don't think there are specific colours associated with Victoria Day. It's not a holiday celebrating our country, or England, in the same way.

Thank you for reading about our Canadian traditions. And thank you to Holly and Patty for letting me fit these questions to my non-American tradition. Not that I asked them if I could, which maybe I should have :)

To all my American readers, I hope you have a good Memorial Day long weekend!