Perhaps not everyone knows that on the 3rd Monday of February, some areas of Canada traditionally celebrate Family Day, a festival created to give people some free time to spend with their families.
The Family Day, which this year falls on the 15th of this month, is celebrated only in the Canadian Provinces of Alberta (where it was celebrated for the first time in 1990), Ontario, British Columbia (here on the 2nd Monday of February) Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. In the last three territories, it also has particularity of being known, respectively, as Louis Riel Day, Nova Scotia Heritage Day and Islander Day. The favorite activities of Canadian households on this day are skating, hockey, skiing and participating in a variety of winter festivals, of course, always accompanied by excellent pancakes with maple syrup.
The Family Day, in a nation where Sunday is not widely perceived in our time as a day of celebration, especially for families, can indicate to lawmakers a path towards the restoration of the natural Family Day, the one that occurs at the end of each week, as a Canadian girl recalled: "In Italy there is still the weekly Family Day. In fact, every Sunday, each person, with his or her family and friends, from the youngest to the oldest, are together from morning to night, having fun and keeping alive the memories of their entire lives. This fantastic relationship supports life and makes it better for all, in both troubled and joyful times. This is what I miss here in Canada, and I hope that one day we too will have a day each week where everyone, and especially the members of the same family, may truly be together to share their joy."
