Victoria Day long weekend, closures and local schedules
Municipalities and local organizations published Victoria Day long weekend hours, with Winnipeg listing what will be open, closed or operating on a reduced schedule for Monday, May 18. City transit will detour Route 3 and Route 17 for LRT track maintenance from Friday, May 15 at 6 PM through the end of service on Monday, May 18, with alternate bus routing and maps available. The Vancouver Island Sexual Assault Centre will close its office on Monday, May 18 while its Sexual Assault Response Team remains accessible 24/7 by phone at 250-383-3232 and by email at access@vsac.ca. Restaurants, recreation providers and retailers are running special long weekend hours and Victoria Day sales through Tuesday, May 19, so check local schedules before you travel.
This will be a Canadian long weekend—known as the 24th of May or the May Two-Four Weekend. It’s intended to mark Queen Victoria’s birthday. Careful observers may note that the actual 24th day of May occurs not this weekend but next. We don’t talk about this. Or why Victoria’ birthday is a thing.
Oh The Urbanity!17Growing up in NS, I’d never heard it called “May two-four” before moving to Ontario. It was always Victoria Day. (Now living in Quebec it’s Patriots Day.)
Tom Slee11It is well known that this year's date comes from a confusion between sovereigns and guineas. Victoria was a sovereign One sovereign is 20 shillings This is the 20th week of 2025. The 24th takes place in the 21st week of 2025. One guinea is 21 shillings. QED
SeriNova9I love that we have a random day off supposedly in honour of a grumpy old (based on most statues) queen, that rarely falls on the 24th, a date that the other Commonwealth countries ignore. It’s real importance is as the start date for planting warm weather vegetables and of camping/cabin excursions.
Ken Buchanan 7My experience is that Americans never ask why we celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday but English people often do, with some level of puzzlement.
Josh Grant6Counterpoint: it's a holiday so who really cares. The holiday day in August is "civic holiday" which is generic as possible.
Michael Peterson3Also known as the Don’t Plant Anything Before May 24 weekend.
Remember its Friday before the long weekend so when you take lunch just never return back to work til Tuesday. Its easy and tbh no one is going to notice.
Mark Dykeman 🇨🇦6Follow Steven for more lifestyle tips and career advice. He, of course, will return promptly after lunch.
sb4My boss is on this app. Do you think he will notice that I liked this....?
Alison4I'm taking all next week off. They won't see me for ten days.
Freakyfoodcdn 🇨🇦3Just wait for everyone's teams status to slowly change to purple or grey and then ...whoops how did mine change too?? 🫢🤭
I continue to not understand how it can be the May long weekend, and the city's last update on Summer Streets was October 22nd. #yegbike www.edmonton.ca/transportati...
chris - sᴉɹɥɔ3...also, Victoria Park Hill's actual upgrade is still on the 2026 schedule. So I assume it will not get a summer street this year. Although who knows when the actual construction will start (November?). Or if dreeshen's drunken bumbling will cancel it.
Connor M3To add to the "it's already May long weekend" pile, the amount of sidewalks and paths with obscene amounts of gravel still on them (because we can't clear ice from refrozen paths in the winter) is pretty frustrating. Especially when the street right next to them has already been swept. #yegbike
Aaron2How entitled of you to expect basic communication about projects that enable safety and mobility that you pay for and benefit directly from /s
In Victoria, we called this the May Day long weekend or just Victoria Day. The 2-4 thing is very much an Ontario thing (or it was then).
Gay Bitterskeets5I never heard of a case of beer referred to that way until I moved to Montréal for school, and a bunch of the Ontarians there called it that. They also called 3.5 grams of weed a half-quarter for some reason?
Jada D2Yeah I discovered that when I moved to NB and got a lot of baffled looks saying may 2-4...
Peter2It was also a Newfoundland thing
