What is Family Day in Canada?

Today is Family Day in some parts of Canada.

Family Day is celebrated on the 3rd Monday of February except in BC where it’s the 2nd Monday of February. This year, Family Day is Feb 19 (Feb 12 in BC).

Recently though, the B.C. government announced that this year’s Family Day will be the last time it falls on the second Monday of February. Starting in 2019, the holiday will be moved to the third Monday of February, to be in line with other provinces in Canada.

Family Day is not a national statutory holiday, it is only observed in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan and in British Columbia. Two other provinces have holidays in February: In PEI, Islander Day is celebrated on the 3rd Monday in February and in Manitoba the 3rd Monday in February is the Louis Riel Day holiday.

Since this is not a federally established holiday all federal workers work on Family day including post office employees and public servants.

Family Day was originally created to give people time to spend with their families but it also provides a day off between New Years Day and Good Friday as they are approximately three months apart.

Thoughts: If the idea of Family Day is to spend time with family, shouldn’t the day then be celebrated nation-wide?

~Wakenya Canada