Today is La St-Jean in Québec, sort of a 4th of July for Québécois…also called La Fête nationale du Québec.

It is so important for us (Quebecois in or away from the mother land…) that it is a paid public holiday and it is celebrated annually on June 24.

In Quebec, the festivities occur on June 23 and June 24 and since 1978 are publicly financed and organized by a National Holiday Organizing Committee (Comité organisateur de la fête nationale). June 24 continues to be celebrated as a festival of French Canadian culture in other provinces and in the United States^.

Yes, here’s our house in Seattle!!!

The feast day of Saint Jean le Batiste or Midsummer was a very popular event in the Ancien Régime de la France, and it is still celebrated as a religious feast day in several countries, like Denmark, Norway, Sweden for example.

The tradition landed in Canada (or should I say Québec!) with the first French colonists. The first celebrations occurred on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River on the evening of June 23, 1636 with a bonfire and five cannon shots.

Now it’s all about the music, the people et la Poutine :O