Canada Day is a national Canadian holiday celebrated annually on July 1 to commemorate the signing of the British North America Act in 1867. The act united Canada into a single country and laid the foundation for its statehood.
Canada Day is a summer holiday, so massive celebrations are usually held outdoors: parades, theme festivals, carnivals, barbecues, fireworks, aerial and sea performances, free concerts. Ceremonies of the signing of the Citizen's Oath are also often held on this day for people acquiring Canadian citizenship. Canada Day is celebrated on July 1, except when this date falls on a Sunday. Then the day off becomes July 2, but all celebrations, as a rule, take place on July 1.
There is no single standard for celebrating Canada Day, but Ottawa, the country's capital, traditionally becomes the center of the celebrations. Great concerts are held here on Parliament Hill. Festivities and shows also take place in most parks and squares in the old town. On a national holiday, the official head of state, the British queen, may come to Canada. Elizabeth II attended Canada Day in 1990, 1992, 1997 and 2010. She also helped organize the celebration of the centenary of Canadian nationhood on July 1, 1967.
The national character of the holiday is the cause of friction between Anglo-Saxon and French Canadians in the French-speaking province of Quebec. Sometimes fighters from the Movement for the Secession of Quebec timed their performances to this day. However, there have been no serious clashes between Protestants and the police in recent years.
Canadian citizens outside the country are organizing Canada Day celebrations at Trafalgar Square in London, Sydney, Hong Kong and several other cities. The largest scale of the celebration is reached in the cities of Detroit, Michigan, USA, and Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Since the 50s of the XX century, the International Freedom Festival has been celebrated here, which unites the celebration of Canada Day and the United States Independence Day (July 4).
