{"id":27012,"date":"2021-06-16T16:54:02","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T20:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.pimsleur.com\/?p=27012"},"modified":"2025-06-04T14:22:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T18:22:52","slug":"quebec-la-fete-nationale-st-jean-baptiste-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pimsleur.com\/blog\/quebec-la-fete-nationale-st-jean-baptiste-day\/","title":{"rendered":"La F\u00eate Nationale – 2021 Guide to Quebec\u2019s Largest Celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Everything You Need to Know About Canada’s Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, or “The National Holiday of Quebec”<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As our lives teeter closer and closer to the brink of \u201cback to normal,\u201d more and more people are making travel plans for the future. However, despite our eagerness to fling the door open and greet the post-pandemic world with open arms, several significant events are still being held online. One such event is Quebec\u2019s Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, known by the Francophone community as La F\u00eate Nationale<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the festival will be held virtually for the second year in a row, the event\u2019s online livestreams offer more accessibility for those of us who are curious about Quebec\u2019s history and annual traditions. At first glance, La F\u00eate Nationale<\/em> appears to be one big party clad in blue and white, but observing the history and traditions behind this holiday may provide non-Quebecers with the context they need to celebrate like the locals!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the History Behind Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

La F\u00eate Nationale <\/em>is observed as a holiday and celebrated in the province of Quebec, alongside a few smaller Francophone communities dispersed across Canada. Canadians have been celebrating on this date for centuries; prior to June 24th being made into a patriotic holiday, festivities on this day were often performed to celebrate the summer solstice — an ancient pagan tradition. However, the French Catholic church later transformed this long-standing tradition into a celebration of Saint Jean, an ascetic Jewish prophet prevalent in the Christian faith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For centuries to follow, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day was simply a religious holiday — but one man wanted to make the festivities an expression of French-Canadian pride<\/a> while showing religious faith. In 1834, a French-Canadian businessman named Ludger Duvernay visited a Saint Patrick\u2019s Day celebration in Montreal. He thought the celebration of Saint Patrick\u2019s Day was a great way to express Irish pride and wanted to bring the same sort of celebration to French-Canadians. Inspired by what he\u2019d seen, Duvernay then formed the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society and worked alongside numerous influential people to make Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day a province-wide holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society finally succeeded in 1925, and Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day was recognized nationally as a statutory holiday. In recent decades, the focus of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day has shifted from purely religious and patriotic to a celebration of culture and unity among Quebecois, giving the holiday a more secular connotation. Because of this significant change, the officially recognized name of the holiday is La F\u00eate Nationale<\/em>, though the two names are still used interchangeably by many French-Canadians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is <\/strong>La F\u00eate Nationale <\/em><\/strong>Celebrated Today?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Though the F\u00eate Nationale <\/em>has gone through several changes throughout its long history, lots of traditions have withstood the test of time and are still conducted today! The holiday has continued to acknowledge its pagan roots, as fires are an important part of the festivities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The night before the celebration, French-Canadians light over 300 bonfires, perform dances, and sing traditional folk songs. Embers from fires lit on National Aboriginal Day held on the 21st of June, are used to light the bonfire in Quebec City on the night of the 23rd. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lots of celebrations are conducted the night before La F\u00eate, <\/em>but the next morning is when the party really <\/em>starts: extravagant parades and concerts are held in the streets for large crowds, with live musical guests hailing from all across Canada and sometimes internationally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though musical genres vary, a staple song that you may hear during the celebration is Gilles Vigneault\u2019s \u201cGens du pays<\/em>,\u201d which has been performed for the F\u00eate Nationale <\/em>since the 1970s. Since then, the song has become synonymous with provincial pride among French-Canadians. One volunteer group even organized a \u201cGens du pays\u201d<\/em> sing-along event in June of 2020, where Quebecois would stand out on their balconies and sing Vigneault’s song into the streets from the comfort and safety of their own homes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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