Sandra Dodd

I have a Canadian question, for purposes of clarity and Thinking
Sticks.

It didn't start off as a Canadian question, but it became one. I
have two orders today for Thinking Sticks, one from Australia and one
from the U.K. I'm nearly out of Thinking Sticks and so needing to
make some anyway, I figured I would localize (or localise, but that
word's never on any sticks, so never mind that...).

I've made Canadian versions, and U.K. versions, but to do an
Australian version I wanted to put what they call what I call (as an
American) "holidays."

In the U.S., if you get out of your house to go somewhere for a week
or two, that's "a vacation." You might plan your vacation to
coincide with a holiday, but it doesn't then become "a holiday."

So wanting to keep the idea of fixed (or variable) dates on which
something special is commemorated or celebrated, for the U.K. it's
bank holiday. For Australia, I think it's public holiday.

Canadians?
Do Canadians go on vacation or on holiday?
Do you call those special days that lots of businesses might be
closed public holidays or plain-old "holidays"?

And the American sticks usually have a "basketball" stick, but for
U.K. I put football and for Canadian hockey.
Is football probably the thing to put for Australia too? (A much-
hooked-up and popular sport that can be played by kids or adults or
professionals.)

I'm guessing, but could be wrong, that New Zealand does as the U.K.
Would football be their [started to write "common..." can't use
common--] predominant/normal/familiar sport too? Does New Zealand
have something more distinctly theirs? Are they a bunch of rugby or
cricket players?

(Neither sport nor sports is/are my common/major/regular/bank-or-
public field of knowledge. Spelling and language, more, but
still... We say sports; others say sport in the same spot. It
seems Americans took the "s" off "maths" and stuck it on "sport.")

Sandra

[email protected]

> Canadians?
> Do Canadians go on vacation or on holiday?

We've called it both. But we would say go "on holidays" instead of "on holiday." We usually refer to a stretch of time as "a vacation" and say "go on a vacation." However, I'm not allowing for regional differences. I grew up in Ontario and B.C., so the terminology may vary elsewhere. If I were speaking French, I would say "en vacances", though that might be different from a native Quebecois speaker.

> Do you call those special days that lots of businesses might be
> closed public holidays or plain-old "holidays"?

We used to call them "stat holidays" - short for "statuatory holidays" - but officially, they are now called "public holidays." And usually "stat holidays" meant bank and government offices were definitely closed and businesses might also be closed. These are mostly national (country-wide) holidays, though apply to provincial/territorial holidays, too. Sometimes, we call them "provincial holidays" when they are specific to a province or call them by what they commemorate (such as "B.C. Day" for when British Columbia became a province of Canada) or "civic holiday." Just about every province has a civic holiday on the first Monday in August. In Quebec, June 24 is officially listed as "National Day", but was always referred to as "Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day." Clear as mud? TMI? <g>

> And the American sticks usually have a "basketball" stick, but for
> U.K. I put football and for Canadian hockey.
>
Oh, did you know that basketball was invented by a Canadian who became a naturalized American citizen? The link to wikipedia suggests he came up with the idea from a game he played in Canada called "Duck on a Rock". Never played it (or heard of it) myself <g>.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Naismith

Robin B.
A Canadian living in WA (oh, and "Canadian Living" is a popular magazine in Canada, too...)




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Helen Cain

>So wanting to keep the idea of fixed (or variable) dates on which
>something special is commemorated or celebrated, for the U.K. it's
>bank holiday. For Australia, I think it's public holiday.

Yes, that's right.

>And the American sticks usually have a "basketball" stick, but for
>U.K. I put football and for Canadian hockey.
>Is football probably the thing to put for Australia too? (A much-
>hooked-up and popular sport that can be played by kids or adults or
>professionals.)

Yes, football. Different game (Australian Rules Football, or Rugby
depending on where you live, rather than soccer) but same name. Or cricket.

Cheers
Helen in Melbourne, Australia

Sandra Dodd

-=-Oh, did you know that basketball was invented by a Canadian who
became a naturalized American citizen? The link to wikipedia suggests
he came up with the idea from a game he played in Canada called "Duck
on a Rock". Never played it (or heard of it) myself <g>.

-=-

I didn't know that. I'm glad to hear it.

I have some history of sports links
http://sandradodd.com/history



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Sandra Dodd