O Canada, we eat our cake for thee
Canada Day commemorates the historic moment on July 1, 1867 when Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Province of Canada (i.e. Ontario and Quebec) joined in a federation to officially become Canada. As such, it is often referred to as Canada’s birthday. The Canadians in Vancouver take this somewhat literally, because at every event we looked at attending, birthday cake was part of the agenda. Which really goes to show how fabulous this country truly is. (I mean, if FREE CAKE doesn’t light your immigration fire, I don’t know what will.)
We
spent the majority of our warm and sunny Canada Day with the crowd massive, road-clogging crowds on Granville Island. Highlights of the day included a parade, free
flags and pins, a giant map of the world (with rocks symbolizing where attendees
were from) and the aforementioned FREE CAKE (preceded by singing the national
anthem). It was fun, although hectic
(especially with our bikes!), what with all those people off work (work? haha,
suckers).
In
the evening, we walked over to the east side of the Stanley Park
seawall for fireworks. The show took place from a barge anchored in Coal Harbour. By our American standards, the pyrotechnics
were remarkably tame. But the spectators
were appreciative (or happily drunk) (or more likely a combination of the
two). All it took was a single big or
colourful explosion and everyone would enthusiastically ooh, aah, clap or honk
a yacht horn.
Come
to think of it, the crowd was probably more entertaining than the display. I was also amused by the adorable twin boys
sitting in front of us. They cheered for
the first five minutes, carefully enunciating “yay Can-na-DAH” as only toddlers
can do. And there were not one but TWO
groups of random young people who belted out the national anthem at separate
times – both were met by cheers and applause from the viewing masses.
Overall, it was interesting to see how another country observes its national holiday of patriotism. Compared to the U.S., I would say the day was less about concepts (e.g. freedom, independence) and more about simply raising a glass to mark another year with a good friend.
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