It’s a holiday weekend in Nova Scotia (and in many of the other provinces).The holiday is known by a variety of names in different provinces and municipalities, including British Columbia Day in British Columbia, New Brunswick Day in New Brunswick, and Saskatchewan Day in Saskatchewan. In Alberta, Heritage Day is an “optional” civil holiday, having been downgraded from a statutory holiday following the introduction of Family Day in 1990.
The holiday is celebrated as Natal Day in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, but is not an official holiday in either locale.
Unlike most holidays, there is not much of a reason for the Civic Holiday to exist, other than its timing. Between Canada Day and Labour Day there are no recognizable holidays, one of the longest stretches on the Canadian calendar without a holiday. Thus, this contrived holiday was placed roughly halfway between Canada Day and Labour Day.
Cameron and I decided to spend part of the long weekend camping at Lake Rossignol. Lake Rossignol is the largest freshwater lake in Nova Scotia and is located in the south-western area of the province.
The lake was quite choppy in the afternoon so we spent our time setting up the tent and establishing a fire pit. Come evening the wind had died away and the lake was lovely and calm. Our first thought was to jump in for a swim but this is as far as we got…
Although the lake is large and shallow the water wasn’t very warm. We decided to take the canoe out instead. After a paddle we cooked dinner and spent a pleasant evening by the camp fire. We had however managed to set our tent up over some serious tree roots and hence we were awake by 5:30am! It was lovely watching the sun rise whilst being out on the water canoeing.
We decided to have breakfast before heading back to civilization.
The road to civilization:
Just another teuchter in Canada 