THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE CALAIS ADVERTISER, MAY 17, 1979.

Our neighbors across the international border will be celebrating Queen Victorias; birthday this coming weekend. Although it actually falls on the twenty-fourth of May, our Canadian friends will be marking it on Monday, May 21 in order to give themselves a long weekend. This interesting anecdote about how her Majesty’s birthday used to be celebrated in Calais and St. Stephen when Queen Victoria was actually living is taken from “An International Community on The St. Croix,” a book by the late Dr. Harold Davis of Calais.

For many years after 1860 the twenty-fourth of May, birthday of Queen Victoria, was one of the principle holidays along the border. Schools and business houses on the New Brunswick side closed and there was a gala celebration. Sometimes Calais tried to continue as usual but the band, fire department and at least half of the town crossed over to join in the fun. Calais school children always demanded but were rarely given a holiday so a lot of them played hooky and went merrily over to St. Stephen chanting defiantly: 

The twenty-fourth of May,

Is the Queen’s birthday

If you don’t give us a holiday

We’ll all run away.

In 1900 the superintendent of schools suspended a large number of pupils for a year because of their absence on the twenty-fourth. There was a storm of protest on all sides. St. Stephen officials interceded on behalf of the students and suspension was removed.