8:25
Frank : « You think 10am is too early for mowing the lawn on a Sunday? »
Émilie : « I think all lawn-mowing is bad on a Sunday – especially on a national holiday – but pressed for a time, I’d wait until 11:30 at least. »
Frank : « Hum. »
10:05
(Revving sound mounts from the neighbour’s yard.)
Émilie, at Frank downstairs : « Hey honey, I think you’ll be alright for 10am… Might as well go now, in fact. »
Happy St-Jean to all! (Québec national day)
Frank : « Tu penses que 10h c’est trop tôt pour passer la tondeuse le dimanche? »
Émilie : « Je pense que c’est une mauvaise idée de passer la tondeuse le dimanche tout court – particulièrement une journée de fête nationale – mais s’il faut que tu fasses ça aujourd’hui, je dirais attends à 11h30 au moins. »
Frank : « Hum. »
10:05
(Le ronronnement d’un moteur monte de la cour du voisin.)
Émilie, à François au sous-sol : « Hé chéri, je pense que tu vas être correct pour 10h… Aussi bien y aller maintenant, en fait. »
Bonne St-Jean tout le monde!
Heh. I could wish that we had such thoughtful neighbours like you and Frank Emilie. I hope you enjoyed your holiday!
I’ve always loved that Quebecois conceit of calling St. Jean de Baptist day a « national » holiday, and calling your legislature the « national assembly. » I remember meny years ago being on family vacation in Quebec, and being on the golf course with my Dad. We were paired with a couple of locals who, when we said we were visiting asked, « how do you like our Country? »
Hey, Paul 🙂
As the definition of a nation is not limited to country, and can be attached to the concepts of « body of people », territory, ethnic family and language, you’ll have to allow us this easy appropriation of the term. I’ll concede, however, that some people of this fiercely proud (sometimes arrogantly so) province are still attached to the notion of an independant Québec country – even though it is steadily loosing in popularity, as the last elections made painfully clear – and that the people from your vacation anecdote were pushing it somewhat – that or they didn’t grasp English quite enough and jumped to the first available word to convey their question.
Officially, the 24th of June in Québec is named the Fête nationale (Québec National Holiday), although people most commonly refer to it as the « St-Jean » (or the St-Jean-Baptiste), as per the celebration’s origins, though probably because it is shorter to say.
Nation from dictionary.com
1. a large body of people, associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own: The president spoke to the nation about the new tax.
2. the territory or country itself: the nations of Central America.
3. a member tribe of an American Indian confederation.
4. an aggregation of persons of the same ethnic family, often speaking the same language or cognate languages.
Yes, Emilie, you’re right about the multiple uses of « Nation »…technically. But I’m pretty sure the suggestive nature of the terminolgy is what they had in mind when they named it. Here in the US, no state would call one of their holidays « national »…although Texas would be tempted 😉
I say 10 is way late enough to mow. I’ve been out there ealier than that and not been the first mower. When it starts getting hot…it’s just hard to begrudge someone for trying to beat the heat.