Family Day - Canada

Family Day is not a national statutory holiday, it is only observed in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan, however, two other provinces have holidays in February: In PEI Islander Day (new since 2009) is celebrated on the 2nd 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.

As mentioned above, unfortunately, not everyone gets Family Day off, which makes it a debatable holiday in many provinces. Why can't the whole country simple agree on 9 or 10 common statutory holidays remains a mystery and a good indicator of just how overcomplicated our laws are.

Common Family Day activities include skating, playing hockey, snowboarding/skiing and going to various winter festivals. But the best best thing about of Family Day must be beaver tails and stuffing ourselves silly with pancakes with maple syrup!

Back to the list of national holidays in Canada.