春节味在温哥华：河东河西30年，Live English(9)

有中国人的地方，就有中国年味。

不仅中国人过春节，越南、韩国、新加坡、马来西亚、印尼等国家也都把春节列为了法定假日。

在加拿大的正式场合（保证“政治正确”），过春节的标语要写成Lunar New Year而不是Chinese New Year。

BC（British Columbia）省有10个法定节日（不上班但拿工资），如果是政府雇员，则可以多享受2个，如下所示。这10个法定节日和春节有关的是BC Family Day（Second Monday in February）。

BC省的法定节日：

New Year's Day（January 1）；BC Family Day（Second Monday inFebruary）；Good Friday（Friday before Easter Sunday）；Easter Monday（Government employees only）；Victoria Day（Monday before May 25）；Canada Day（July 1）；British Columbia Day（First Monday in August）；Labour Day（First Monday in September）；Thanksgiving（Second Monday in October）；Remembrance Day（November 11）；Christmas Day（December 25）；Boxing Day（December 26,Government employees only）。

实际上，BC Family Day（Second Monday in February）直到2012年才被BC省政府确定下来，第一个BC Family Day开始于 2013年。只有2016年的BC Family Day碰上了春节，如下所示。

关于设立BC Family Day的讨论和争论，最早开始于1994年，直到2012年才有结果，大约用了18年的时间（参见Background of BC Family Day）。

事实上，加拿大最早设立Family Day的省份是Alberta。（Family Day was first held in Canada in the province of Alberta in 1990.）

温哥华的华人在BC Family Day的建设过程中是有贡献的，但不是媒体所说的那样。

截止到2016年，加拿大总人口为3628.64万。几个人口大省分别是：Ontario（1,398.3万），Quebec（832.61万），British Columbia（475.16万），Alberta（425.29万），Manitoba（131.81万），Saskatchewan（115.06万）。（数据来自Statistics Canada，以下关于加拿大的数据都来自Statistics Canada）

加拿大的官方语言是英语和法语。

加拿大约有1千8百万人会说英语，7百万人会说法语，1百万人会说中文。注意，这不是统计人口，而是统计说语言的人，有人可能会说多种语言。加拿大比较流行的15种语言如下（括号内数据为人数）：

English（18,858,975），French（7,054,970），Chinese（1,072,555）, Panjabi (Punjabi)（430,705），Spanish（410,670），German（409,200），Italian（407,490），Arabic（327,870），Tagalog (Pilipino, Filipino)（327,450），Portuguese（211,335），Polish（191,650），Vietnamese（144,885），Ukrainian（111,540），Dutch（110,490），Greek（108,925）。还有很多语言，语言种类多也是体现加拿大多元文化的一个基本参数。

汉语（Chinese）已经领先Panjabi (Punjabi)了，但是说汉语的人的实力还远不如说Punjabi人的实力强。这和美国硅谷的情况是一样的。

在加拿大的华人（华裔和华侨），现在已经有1,346,510，差不多占加拿大总人口的3.7%。

加拿大说汉语的人在加拿大各城市的比重：

Alberta：Calgary(7.2%)；Edmonton(5.3%)

British Columbia：Richmond (48.5%)；Greater VancouverA (30.8%)；

Burnaby (31.7%)；Vancouver(28.8%)；Coquitlam(18.3%)；

WestVancouver (11.3%)；Port Coquitlam (10.3%)；

Port Moody(9.9%)；NewWestminster (9.6%)；Saanich (7.8%)；

Surrey (7.0%)；Delta (6.1%)；

North Vancouver (districtmunicipality) (6.2%)

Ontario：Markham(39.6%)；Richmond Hill (24.5%)；Toronto (12.0%)；

Mississauga(8.6%)；Waterloo(7.3%)；Vaughan (5.8%)

Quebec：Brossard(13.6%)；Kirkland(5.5%)。

下面是我在温哥华（Vancouver）一个社区图书馆拍摄的照片，在Lunar NewYear的Title下面，用什么文化元素来表达，不存在任何问题。

Background of Family Day

Family Day was first held in Canada in the province of Alberta in 1990. It is supposed to reflect the values of family and home that were important to the pioneers who founded Alberta,and give workers the opportunity to spend more time with their families. Family Day was introduced in Saskatchewan in 2007 and in Ontario in 2008. British Columbia observes Family Day as a statutory holiday for the first time in 2013. One ofthe reasons for introducing Family Day was that there was a long period when there were no holidays from New Year's Day until Good Friday.

Holidays to celebrate families are also held in other places around the globe. In the Australian Capital Territory,the first Tuesday of November is known as Family and Community Day. In South Africa,the day after Easter Sunday is Family Day.

Background of BC Family Day

A private member's bill to establish Family Dayon the third Monday in February was introduced in the British Columbia Legislature by Liberal MLA Bob Chisholm in 1994 but failed to pass.^[9]Although there were renewed calls to introduce Family Day in BC between 2007and 2011, it was opposed by the British Columbia Chamber of Commerce and the Campbell government.^[10][11]

On January 10, 2011, while running for the leadership of the BC Liberal Party, Christy Clark proposed establishing a Family Day holiday on the third Monday of February. Clark subsequently became premier; the Speech from the Throne, delivered on October3, 2011, said that BC would observe its first Family Day on February 18, 2013.^[12]

In 2012, a two-week consultation process was held inorder to determine if British Columbians preferred the holiday to fall on the second or third Monday in February.^[13]On May 28, 2012, it was announced that Family Day would be observed on the second Monday in February each year, starting February 11, 2013.^[14]