Pages tagged with: public holidays

Christmas in New Zealand is less about snow and sleigh bells and more about sun, sand and backyard barbecues. Over the holiday season we explore the Kiwi Christmas experience – from Abel Tasman’s first New Zealand Christmas in 1642 to the declining reign of the Queen’s message

First observed in 1916, Anzac Day - 25 April - commemorates those killed in war as well as honouring returned servicemen and women. The ceremonies that are held at war memorials across the country, or in places overseas where New Zealanders gather, are rich in tradition and ritual.

Every year on 6 February, New Zealand marks the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. For most people, Waitangi Day is a holiday; for many, and especially for Maori, it is a time for reflecting on the Treaty and its place in modern New Zealand.

Empire Day (24 May), was celebrated widely in New Zealand from 1903 and was a major event in the Vice-regal calendar.

The Anzac Day ceremony of 25 April is a form of military funeral and follows a particular pattern. The day's ceremonies have two major parts: one at dawn and another, more public event, later in the morning.

This reports the first Labour Day parade in Wellington, 28 October 1890.

Why did we celebrate Empire Day?

Anzac Day was made a half-day holiday in 1916, and the pattern of the day's events that occur now began at that time.

24 May, Queen Victoria's birthday, was Empire Day. Most people welcomed this link to 'Queen Victoria the Good' in the days when the celebration of the sovereign's birthday changed with each new monarch.

The first Empire Day was commemorated in 1903

The Waitangi Day Act 1960 declared 6 February to be Waitangi Day – a national day of thanksgiving in commemoration of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. 

Waitangi Day, a public holiday from 1974, briefly became New Zealand Day in the 1970s. Increasingly, it became a focus for Maori protest activities.

The parades, building openings, flag salutes and earnest speeches of 1903 set the pattern for later Empire Days.

Labour Day float, 1916

Anzac Day came to have a wider focus and the commemorations became more popular in the years after the Second World War.

The 1980s brought changes in the way Waitangi Day was marked officially, as well as growing Maori protest.

Children were key targets for Empire Day.

Each generation of New Zealanders redefines Anzac Day to suit the mood of the times, but the last 40 years have been a time of much redefinition.

The first Dominion Day, 1907, was a holiday for public servants as all government offices closed to mark the occasion.