Fête nationale du Québec (Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day)
Held annually on 24 June, the
Fête nationale du Québec (formerly known as Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day) has been a
statutory holiday in Québec since 1925. Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day has been
celebrated in North America since the early days of New France. Originally a
religious celebration, it took a more patriotic turn in 1834 with Ludger
Duvernay. The first Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day parade took place in Montréal in
1843. Since 1984, the Mouvement national des Québécoises et Québécois (MNQ) has
organized the festivities of the Fête nationale du Québec. Various francophone
communities across Canada also celebrate Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day.
Origins of Saint-Jean-Baptiste
Day: Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day
originated from celebrations of the summer solstice, an ancient pagan tradition
in which fires were lit to celebrate light on the longest day of the year. In
France, the Roman Catholic Church adapted this holiday and associated it with
John the Baptist, cousin of Jesus. The
tradition of lighting the Saint-Jean fire to mark the beginning of summer was
brought to New France in 1646. In 1694, Mgr de Saint-Vallierdeclared it a
public holiday dedicated to devotion. Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day continued to be
celebrated after the Conquest, but it was not until 1834 that it took on the
political tone it still has today. On 8
March 1834, Ludger Duvernay, editor of the newspaper La Minerve (an important
publication in Lower Canada and voice of the Patriotes), founded the
organization Aide-toi et le ciel t’aidera (help yourself and Heaven will help
you) together with George-Étienne Cartier, then a law student, and Louis-Victor
Sicotte. This organization, the name of which was a reference to a
revolutionary secret society founded in France in 1827, foreshadowed the Fils
de la Liberté and was a sort of ancestor of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste.
The organization aimed to create a national holiday for French Canadians and
organize celebrations to go along with it, similar to how the Irish in Montréal
had celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with a parade since 1824. On 24 June 1834, Duvernay invited a number of
prominent Montrealers to the first Saint-Jean-Baptiste banquet at the home of
lawyer John MacDonnell. The event was above all a political affair, attended by
roughly sixty francophones and anglophones (including member of the assembly
Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine, future lawyer and premier of the Province of Canada
George-Étienne Cartier, mayor of Montréal Jacques Viger and Dr. Edmund
O’Callaghan). Guests toasted to the Ninety-Two Resolutions, the United States,
and the reformists of Lower and Upper Canada and of Ireland. In reports
following the banquet, several journalists encouraged people to publicly
celebrate Saint-Jean-Baptiste the following year; such celebrations likely took
place in many villages. However, the
events of the 1837–1838 rebellions forced Duvernay and several other Patriotes
into exile. Upon returning to Canada in 1842, Duvernay quickly revived the
Saint-Jean-Baptiste celebrations, emphasizing that French Canadians needed to
stay united more than ever. Thus, on 9 June 1843, the Association
Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal was created as a result of Ludger Duvernay’s
efforts, and on 24 June, Montréal held its first Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day
parade, a tradition that continues to this day.
A Celebration of Religion and
Identity: In the beginning,
Saint-Jean festivities consisted of a banquet, a Mass, the distribution of
consecrated bread and a parade. Members of Saint-Jean-Baptiste societies
marched in the procession; over time, it expanded to include a variety of other
cultural organizations (such as the Institut canadien), professional orders
(members of the Québec Bar, physicians, etc.) and trade associations, and
students. For the occasion, shops and homes displayed the symbols of
Saint-Jean-Baptiste societies: the maple leaf and the beaver. The patriotic
song “Ô Canada! mon pays! mes amours!” (written by George-Étienne Cartier and
performed for the first time during the second Saint-Jean-Baptiste banquet in
1835), as well as the popular “Vive la Canadienne” served as national anthems
for a long time. Additionally, “O Canada,” which would officially become the
national anthem of the country in 1980, was heard for the first time during Saint-Jean
celebrations in Québec City in 1880.
Given the pervasiveness of the
Roman Catholic Church in French Canadian society, the holiday had a marked
association with St. John the Baptist from the beginning. St. John the Baptist
was personified by a curly-haired child holding a sheep in the last float of
the parade. However, it was not until 1908 that St. John the Baptist officially
became the patron saint of French Canadians. The figures of Jacques Cartier, a
Frenchman, and an Aboriginal person, also portrayed by children, also featured
in many parades in the 19th century. Over time, characters representing New
France and famous Canadians were also added.
Each year, Saint-Jean-Baptiste
celebrations were organized throughout the province. The largest ones, however,
were held in Québec City and Montréal. Officially recognized by the Legislative
Assembly of Québec in 1925, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day became a statutory holiday
that year. In 1947, the Saint-Jean-Baptiste societies of Québec formed a federation,
which hastened to campaign in favour of adopting the fleur-de-lys as the
province’s flag. Consequently, on 21 January 1948, Québec adopted an official
flag (see Fleur-de-lys) that soon became a rallying symbol in
Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day celebrations.
During the 1960s and 1970s, which
were turbulent years for Québec, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day became less about
religion and more focused on culture, art and unity. In June 1972, the
Fédération des Sociétés Saint-Jean-Baptiste du Québec became the Mouvement national
des Québécois (MNQ). The holiday, seen as a time for national unity, also
served as a platform for artists and politicians. Political leaders joined the
parade, occasionally causing stirs in the crowd, and sovereigntists used it as
an opportunity to champion their cause. In 1975, Gilles Vigneault first
performed his song “Gens du pays,” an anthem to the people of Québec that has
played a key role in the holiday and in Québécois culture ever since.
Fête nationale du Québec: On 24 June 1977, the government of René
Lévesque renamed Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day the Fête nationale du Québec,
definitively distancing it from religion. In the 1980s and 1990s, celebrations
became highly politicized in the wake of the first and second referendums on
Québec sovereignty (see: Québec Referendum (1980); Québec Referendum (1995)).
Over time, the Fête nationale has welcomed the various communities that make up
Québec society and embraced their cultural and artistic contributions. To commemorate the religious holiday of long
ago, Masses are still held the morning of 24 June and during the Solstice des
Nations, a traditional ceremony held as part of National Aboriginal Day on 21
June. The embers from the Friendship Fire held during the event are then used
to light a large bonfire on the Plains of Abraham, in Québec City, on the night
of 23 June. It is with renewed
enthusiasm, year after year, that the people of Québec celebrate their national
holiday with more than 750 celebrations held across the province on 23 and 24 June.
Organized by nearly 20,000 volunteers, the festivities of the Fête nationale
include more than 1,050 events and 360 bonfires, in addition to some of the
largest public gatherings in Québec.
Outside Québec: A number of francophone communities outside
Québec also celebrate Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day. It plays a large part in the
annual Franco-Ontarian Festival in Ottawa and is also celebrated in Eastern
Ontario, in many towns in Northern Ontario (such as Hearst and Kapuskasing), in
Acadia and in several Franco-Manitoban communities. A number of British
Columbian francophone associations (including those of Kamloops, Vancouver,
Maillardville, Nelson and Victoria) also organize Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day
festivities. Outside of Canada, Québec’s delegations in Paris, New York,
London, Brussels, Mexico City and Tokyo hold celebrations as well.
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