2011 Family Day

Family Day


Family Day is the name of a public holiday in South Africa, in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Prince Edward Island, in the American states of Arizona and Nevada, in Vanuatu, in Vietnam and (as "Family & Community Day") in the Australian Capital Territory.
Contents
[hide]

    1 Australia
        1.1 Australian Capital Territory
    2 Canada
    3 South Africa
    4 United States
    5 Vanuatu
    6 References

[edit] Australia
[edit] Australian Capital Territory

Family & Community Day was celebrated on the first Tuesday of November in 2007, 2008 and 2009, which coincides with the Melbourne Cup. This public holiday was declared in 2007 under section 3(1)(b) of the Holidays Act 1953 (ACT) and was announced in 2008 that it would continue on Melbourne Cup Day in 2008 and 2009. In his speech to the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly, Mr. Andrew Barr, the ACT Minister for Industrial Relations stated the purpose of the new public holiday was:

"...to enable workers to take a break from their hectic working lives and to spend some quality time with their family and friends. ... Australians do work the longest hours of any country in the western world. We do deserve a break."[1]

The ACT’s Minister for Industrial Relations John Hargreaves announced in August 2009 that the territory’s Family and Community Day would move to a different date from 2010 onwards.

Mr Hargreaves announced that Family and Community Day would be on the first Monday of the September/October school holidays in 2010 (Monday, September 27, 2010). “However, in future years where the first Monday of the school holidays falls on the currently designated Labour Day public holiday, such as will occur in 2011 and 2012, the Family and Community Day will be moved to the second Monday of the term break," Mr Hargreaves said.