Every year on the Monday on or before May 24th (Queen Victoria’s birthday) we Canucks have a statutory holiday. (Yes, I know it’s not a statutory holiday in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island but the rest of us have Monday off…ha!)
Canadian icons Bob and Doug McKenzie engaging in Canada’s primary Victoria Day pastime: beer drinking
Victoria Day is officially the Sovereign's birthday here regardless of who’s currently occupying the throne.
In England you celebrate it in June.
The Aussies confuse the issue by having two different dates to celebrate the Queen’s birthday. Most of Australia celebrates in June but Western Australia celebrates it on the Monday nearest September 30th.
But back to the beer.
We Canucks refer to this long weekend as THE MAY TWO-FOUR WEEKEND. Not because Queen Victoria was born on May 24th but because beer is often bought in cases of 24, referred to as a "two-four". *
Cases of Molson Canadian “two-fours” to the right
Question to you foreigners: Do you have a beer fridge in your back yard or is it just us?
Summer beer fridge
Winter beer fridge
Take note of how we Canadians become quite giddy over the May Two-Four weekend as this heralds the coming of warm weather.
Watch as our highways become congested as we head out to open our cottages (also referred to as “camp” in some parts of the country.)
Laugh at us as we inevitably fall flat on our faces from the excess that results when Canadians combine booze with a long weekend.
Okay, where’s my beer, eh?
And so ends our cultural lesson for the day.
Happy May Two-Four!
* Canadian word of the day.
Happy May Two-Four to you!
ReplyDeleteWe have a beer fridge at home, it's on our porch. Classy.
Gad I'm feeling old now - Bob and Doug are downing stubbies LOL
ReplyDeleteYeee Dee hawwwww!
ReplyDeleteCelebration!
Time--tonight!
Repent you sinners for alcohol is Satan's vomit.
ReplyDeleteDid you really buy soap with that twenty, MJ?
ReplyDeleteI only ask because there's no evidence of foul mouthedness here.
Or are you saving up for Monday?
Happy Two-Four to you.
ReplyDeleteNo we don't have beer fridges. Well not in Bournemouth anyway.
DINAH: Your beer fridge is on the porch?
ReplyDeleteWhen you’re THAT classy you spell it Klassy.
LOST: Never fear for the stubby is back!
AWA: Birthday celebrations started early I see?
GOG: Satan loves it when you drink and get high.
IVD: No evidence of foul mouthedness?
For fuck’s sake, can’t a bitch write what she fucking well pleases?
FROBI: No beer fridges in Bournemouth?
Then where do you store your Old Lesbian No. 6 ale?
Happy Two Four (I know you Canadians only get about three hours off work a year, so make the most of it).
ReplyDeleteWe don't have a fridge full of beer in the garden. It would probably be stolen straight away if we did.
You Canucks are just like frozen Aussies .. without the cricket.
ReplyDeleteBETTY: What about that dead, huge, ugly, enormous, smelly fish with missing eyes and flies crawling over it that you found in your garden…
ReplyDeleteWouldn’t that keep the thieves away if you placed it by the beer fridge?
KAZ: What was that you were saying about no cricket in Canada?
Sorry mj:
ReplyDeleteCanuck cricket is obviously for people with Attention Deficit Disorder.
Like me - especially after a few tinnies..
Oh, the gods have indeed smiled upon you! Clearly your 20 Canadian dollars was meant to be spent enjoying such a wonderful holiday!!!
ReplyDeletePerhaps if not beer, then fridge magnets?! or new set of shot glasses!!
No beer fridge here; just liquor shelves...
KAZ: Was it the tin,
ReplyDeleteOr was it the gin?
EROS: What is the point of the shot glass?
I just eyeball what looks to me like a good two ounces, pour it in the glass, and then add another wee splash for good measure.
I figured you were keeping this post "clean" due to the High Holiday and all.
ReplyDeleteThere's no Holiday in the States that doesn't have a sale attached to it. You drink, we shop. And then drink.
Old Queen Victoria could have done with a few Molsens to cheer her up.
ReplyDeleteDo I have to pop into the Maple Leaf pub round the corner from where I work tomorrow? They don't do real ale so I'm not very enthusiastic.
I completely forgot on my first comment: A happy & completely pissed up Two-Four, you potty mouth!
ReplyDeleteBOXER: I expect there are loads of people shopping this holiday weekend at Canadian Tire.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you don’t know what Canadian Tire is, there will be a future post on the topic.
GEOFF: Queen Victoria and you and everyone else should stay away from Molson’s beer.
It’s the main cause of the “Molson Muscle” otherwise known as a beer belly.
There. You’ve just learned another Canadian word.
Now let’s use it in a sentence thusly…
“I’m not buying another TWO-FOUR until I get rid of my MOLSON MUSCLE.”
IVD: Potty mouth?
Should I take a page from your book and substitute the word “Lawks!” instead?
You drunken louts from North of the Border are killing the planet!
ReplyDeleteCanadian Beer Drinkers Threaten Planet
Happy B-day Vickie!
I is back
ReplyDeleteand knackered
Happy two-four
BOB: Oh that's right, go right ahead and BLAME CANADA!
ReplyDeleteBEAST: Hurrah, you're back!
Now go have a nap.
Will visit tomorrow...I'm at work.. on a long weekend!
Two Four weekend and Canada-Russia in the finals in hockey. Perfection!! Sorry you have to work MJ - but hope you get to suck on a stubbie later!
ReplyDeleteIt's 4 to 3 for Canada in the 3rd period and it's stubby, and not stubbie - a Canadian should know the difference. Either way - hope you get to suck on one and cheer Canada's victory over Russia!
ReplyDeletenwtrunner: Wouldn't be perfect if a Canadian team was in the Stanley Cup playoffs?
ReplyDeleteMJ: We blamed Iraq for 9/11, why not blame Canada for global warming?
Personally I blame the French and possibly by ascociation FRENCH CANADIANS
ReplyDeleteNWT, BOB & BEAST: I blame all of you from distracting me from my duties.
ReplyDeleteSuck on that!
i'll drink to that, sugar! in fact, i'll be we could get a party together here in town and toast all y'all1 ;-) xooxo
ReplyDeleteSAVANNAH: You'll drink to anything!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if there are Canadian expats in Savannah.
You'll know them by their Molson Muscles.
Cheers!
Two for? I can't believe we haven't named a long weekend that!
ReplyDeleteIt must be being a colonial that does it to us - long weekends and beer fridges.
I personally don't have a beer fridge (too poor and I don't drink) but all my family does. We keep ours in the garage, though.
Inspired by two-four day, I just got back from the grocery store and NO Canadian beers. Plenty of Mexican beers like Corona, XX, and Modelo.
ReplyDeleteDamn immigration. We need some Canucks in California (starting with Shania Twain and Roberto Luongo).
T-BIRD: They could call the Aussie long weekend the "Four-X Weekend".
ReplyDeleteBOB: Now that she's finished her Caesars Palace stint, maybe Vegas can send Celine Dion to you.
*laffs uncontrollably*
bless you all and your funny ways......we, the Irish, celebrate our saint's day b.......oh yeah we get shitfaced....very
ReplyDeleteYep Aussies have a beer fridge in the back yard. And I suspect many an Aussie would think they could drink a Canadian under the table. Especially in the Northern Territory.
ReplyDeleteCheers Mark x
yeah no shit the roads will be full of canadians 'celebrating'. It already is. the border is packed up all the way across front street here and the streets are full of winnebagoes pulling escalades full of molson 'twennyboxes'. every public space between here and oregon is jammed tight with pallid, underdressed cheezers with a blue can permanently attached to one hand.
ReplyDeletetell me why the hell is it that canadians celebrate every single canadian holiday on the calendar by LEAVING CANADA EN MASSE??
me, i think its pretty telling. hmph.
*goes out to scatter orange cones across front yard*
you simply MUST drop my fake baby's daddy a line about this post. He will appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteI full on fake love him.
What idiot was giving away their beer fridge? who does that?
My beer of choice is Wildcat Strong ~yes, its true, it is crap beer, but its strong and gets you drunk and i've aquired a taste for it. especially after the third one.
Beer for the masses.
ReplyDeleteWhere's my Silvaner?
Canada lost 5 to 4 in overtime aganst Russia a nation mourns.....
ReplyDeleteStubbies - we need stubbies!!! Now!!!
What a 2-4 weekend. Ack!
At least we still have MJ :-)
MANUEL: IS there a holiday where we DON'T get shitfaced?
ReplyDelete*has to think too long so the answer is NO*
GRUMP: I suspect many an Aussie could drink THIS Canadian under the table.
NATIONS: It's called a TWO-FOUR.
NOT a 'twennybox".
You love yourself some cheezers oh yeah you do baby.
CHER: What am I? Your personal assistant?
Drop your fake baby daddy a line yourself.
He wants to feel the fake love from you.
MAGO: Das Wein über alles, ja?
NWT: MJ uber alles, eh?
good point.
ReplyDeleteyour comments are like i wrote them myself. its creeping me out.
are you really me?
CHER: You're just creeping me out period.
ReplyDeleteFull stop.
I wonder if we get our periods at the same time.
i'm bleeding right now.
ReplyDeleteCHER: Shit. Me too.
ReplyDeleteIf you tell me you also have Satanic cramps, I'm going to freak.
i want to say i do just to see what your idea of freaking is.
ReplyDeleteCHER: Freak-out averted.
ReplyDeleteBut still…
Maybe we were separated at birth.
you were born in surrey too?
ReplyDeleteCHER: Ontario.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to slit my wrists if I were from Surrey.