Some people in retirement have little trouble remembering special days in their life.
Some are pretty obvious – New Year’s Day, Canada Day, Good Friday and Easter, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Oh and May 21.
For me May 21 is always the start of summer – unofficially – since summer officially started on June 21 (this year). May 21 is also generally viewed as the first reasonably safe day to ‘plant a garden.’
Other days are also pretty easy to remember – Labour Day (September 2 this year), immediate family birthdays, and usually St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) and Valentine’s Day (February 14) stick easily in the mind.
Other, however, are not so easy – Scots will always note St. Andrew’s Day on November 30 and most Brits can tell you their country’s saint’s day.
When you’re still working, most stat holidays and BC Day (August 5) are easy to track and grandchildren will always remind you of upcoming Hallowe’en. Remembrance Day is easy too – November 11 – but I get confused when I’m watching American TV and Memorial Day pops up May 17, and its Veterans Day on November 11.
In Canada, July 1 always sparks a party atmosphere – sometimes a bit frantically in Ottawa but more subdued across the rest of the country. I enjoyed the parade and the show put on for Canada Day in Kitimat this year.
Anything Donald Trump does in the U.S. of course, seems to create divisiveness – so it was no surprise when so many people rebelled prior to the Fourth of July holiday in the U.S. last week, when they protested Donald Trump’s promised “day to remember” as co-opting the national vacation day and turning it into a giant Trump election rally (although, come to think of it, on Canada Day in Ottawa, PM Justin Trudeau’s address to the nation had a fairly partisan electoral ring to it as well).
But, there are a lot of ‘special days’ but not all of them are as memorable for some retirees living lives where days and weeks can sometimes slip by unnoticed.
But across the country, whether is Fête National or St. Jean Baptiste Day in Quebec, it’s quite a celebration too. National Indigenous Peoples Day is June 21 in the Northwest but a new statutory holiday is proposed by the government to commemorate the legacy of residential schools fulfilling a recommendation made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
If the bill is passed, the National Truth and Reconciliation Day will be on September 30. At this point, it’s unclear if this is going to be national statutory holiday or up to provinces and territories to adopt it, or whether it will apply only to federal employees, or everyone. It is also not known in which year the first observation will take place.
Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez’s office says instead of having the stat holiday, the government will fund “local Indigenous events” that day, but gave no indication whether this is a proposal they’ll push to revive in the future.
Events were held across Canada on June 21 to mark National Indigenous Peoples Day, including a sunrise ceremony in Toronto, a totem pole unveiling in Whitehorse and the renaming of a street in Montreal. In a statement to CTV the minister’s office blamed the Conservatives for the reconciliation bill not getting passed before the Senate adjourned – so watch the news – I don’t know if that will become a date or a status change down the road.
Anyway, as a retiree I have always kept a little gray notebook, with important dates in it – but it’s now missing and the house somehow won’t give it up. So, I’m making a new list.
I can’t imagine how after being used for a decade a little book like that can just vanish – but every other day something else isn’t there when I go to pick it up, so look in the mirror?
By the way, I didn’t notice the earthquake south of us off the Bella Bella coast last week, but my Facebook shows there were some people who clearly experienced it in the area. Variously reported at a magnitude of 5.8 to 6,2, it did not generate a tidal wave or major shocks.
Nevertheless, Global News issued the usual warnings that a majority of British Columbians expect a powerful earthquake to hit the region in the coming decades, but fewer than half of them have an emergency kit.
According to a survey conducted by a research company, just 46 per cent of British Columbians have bought or prepared an emergency kit with supplies they would need in the event of a disaster.
Just a reminder!