The arrival of spring and Queen Victoria’s birthday were both reasons to celebrate in Canadian communities in the 1860’s. The Queen's Birthday was widely recognized as an important national holiday by the 1860's. The Queen's Birthday presented a chance to get outdoors after a long winter and to celebrate the blessings of monarchy. Traditionally, the Queen's Birthday was an appropriate time for the regular military and sedentary militia (non-uniformed civilian men of the local area) to muster, patriotic speeches, parades, and sporting and athletic demonstrations. Queen Victoria was born May