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MaxQ’s “Where are you from” thread http://www.wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=8253&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&part=all&vc=1made me think of something that is apparently is unique to Québec. It is not done in any other province in Canada or anywhere else in the world. On July 1st of every year Québec streets are jammed with our official migration – known locally as MOVING DAY. This is the day that everybody who wants to move, does. Leases (rental contracts) all run from July 1st to June 30th. If a person decides to leave his parents’ home, or gets married on, say, February 1st, a lease is made up to run from February 1st to June 30th of the same year, or June 30th of the next year…just to get him in line with the rest of the province. Needless to say, when two or three people are trying to move into an apartment complex and two or three are trying to move out, it is havoc as all the moving vans try to hustle to be the first one at the door. Moving companies do a booming business on this one day and starve the rest of the year. Last year, a gentleman from Ireland came over to make a documentary about this migration and the history behind it. The most he came up with, after searching through archives for weeks, was an edict by the government passed some time in the 30’s or 40’s changing moving day from May 1st to July 1st because it caused less of a problem with children’s school schedules. Why everybody originally moved on May 1st is still a mystery. I know this is not strictly a word question, but seeing as we have members from just about everywhere, I thought it would be interesting to find out if there was anything with the same uniqueness that could be attributed to your region.
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 Incroyable! Do you mean that no one moves on any other day?! I'm sorry, but that is one of the funniest things I've ever heard, and there is certainly no NZ custom that comes close to that for sheer humorous surrealism. If you have any other gems of this calibre, please do share! 
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Mais oui, a few people do move on other days - when they leave their parents house or when a couple of people get married, or break up. But then, the leases they sign are set up with the proper amount of months to put them back on track with the rest of the province. From then on and forever, they move on the 1st of July. What makes matters worse is the fact that July 1st is Canada day - a celebration of our confederacy. So you have party people and movers on the street at the same time. In some areas I would say the best way to describe it is HAVOC. I am glad to report that this is probably one of the only quirky and unexplainable things that is part of the Québecois gestalt (this and our overwhelming love of desserts made with brown sugar). But we are a happy people !
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This truly is a bizarre phenomenon. I think that I would have to move every year in January for fear of feeling trapped for another year. (this comming from a person who has moved 4 times since May of 1998  )
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>This truly is a bizarre phenomenon. I think that I would have to move every year in January for fear of feeling trapped for another year. (this comming from a person who has moved 4 times since May of 1998)
But Xara, where could you go?
TEd
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Actually, if she moved in January, she would have to settle for a dive that nobody else wanted because those are the left-overs from Moving day.
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I am rather embarrassed to say that Jo’s “Holiday is Here” thread brought up an other Québec quirkiness – the construction holidays. In Québec, 80 percent of the population takes their vacation during the last two weeks of July. Shops close down, warehouses and manufacturers grind to a halt and offices are shut down. Naturally, beaches and resorts are full, and you can’t get a room for the life of you.
This came about the 20’s or 30’s I believe. The government of Québec implemented legislation to insure that construction workers (who were treated miserably back then) earned at least a minimum wage and were allowed two weeks respite from the job. They determined that the last two weeks of July were the nicest of the summer (or the only summer in our case) so those were the weeks the construction companies had to let people take off. A domino effect was created since wives (who back then worked in factories and as secretaries) took their vacations at the same times as their husbands…and thus a two-week stop-work came into effect.
I will HAVE to stop telling you people these things. Your impression of us will be widely skewed. All right, you’re all invited up for a good ‘joie de vivre’ Québecois party. It’ll show you what a great bunch we really are.
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bel:
I think this is also common in England. I spent a month or so on a bike in England in '77, and I seem to remember that I was told to avoid a certain area because they were all going to go on holiday and the roads would be jammed with caravans.
On inquiry, I learned that different parts of England tended to have holday at different times of the summer. Of course in almost a quarter of a century that may have changed a bit, but knowing England and the English I suspect not much.
And doesn't Paris close down for August?
TEd
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enthusiast
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Australia just about shuts down and goes to the beach from late December until mid January.
December is sheer madness as everything hits at once - the end of the school year with its speech nights and other presentations, ditto for sporting organizations' end of season celebrations, family preparations for Christmas (shopping for presents and for victuals for the festive season) and for long summer holidays, office Christmas parties (usually several, by the time you have whole-of-company, department, clients', suppliers' etc), and all of this whilst most industries are working flat-chat right up until Christmas dealing with the rush caused by the fact that they are about to close for 2/3/4 weeks!
By contrast, in January you're lucky if a tradesperson or a commercial concern will even answer the phone.
Christmas seems an unnaturally early start to the school summer holidays. From a climatic point of view, many people would prefer the more predictably warm period of mid January to end of February. We often find that the really hot stinking weather (say 38C/100F+, and I'm in one of the more temperate areas) hits just as the kids go back to school at the end of January.
I think that the northern hemisphere gets a better deal out of Christmas. You get a nice little cheer-me-up in the middle of winter when you need it most, all the traditional snow-and-reindeer stuff works better without the blowflies and sunburn, and it isn't complicated by as many other activities.
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>Of course in almost a quarter of a century that may have changed a bit, but knowing England and the English I suspect not much. Yes "shut down" holidays were common. In the North West where I lived, Oldham had the "wakes weeks" in June, so the schools followed suit and closed for two weeks. In Rochdale, just half a mile away had a week in September. My father was a headteacher and the holidays were very inconvenient for anyone sitting important exams as they had to be taken on the same date all over the country. I think that although the few remaining mills may well close for the Wakes weeks, there is no longer the same major shut-down. In Scotland, Edinburgh and Glasgow have "Trades Fortnight" -Edinburgh in the first two weeks in July, Glasgow in the third and fourth weeks. I found this on the internet: "(1) I am not sure how it was arranged, but no two adjacent towns had "Wakes" in the same week. This meant, as the week wore on and you ran out of food because all the grocers were shut, you could get a bus into the neighbouring town to do some shopping. It also meant that you did not get people from neighbouring (=rival) towns in the same pubs in Blackpool, as they were there on separate weeks. This helped keep the peace in Blackpool. (2) Whereas towns like Oldham, Chadderton, Bury and Bacup had "Wakes Weeks", the people of Rochdale thought themselves a cut above the others, and their one-week holiday was called "Rushbearing". (3) When I say I doubted if you could even be buried in Wakes Week, I did not mean you could not find a clergyman. Rather, the gravedigger would be in Blackpool, the undertaker's clerk in St Anne's and the undertaker himself probably in somewhere posh like Morecombe or Grange-over-Sands. (4) As I said, there were no coal mines still working in Rochdale when I lived there up to 1945, but I am sure the same arrangements applied in towns where there were mines. To suggest they would not take the one week a year holiday they were entitled to, pay or no pay, is to invite a punce (=kick) on the shins with an iron-shod clog!" Tony Brewis http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/mining-history/1999-05/0058.htmlalso: http://www.mill-hill.org.uk/Moonraker/Chap8.html
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old hand
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When I say I doubted if you could even be buried in Wakes Week
Somewhat off topic, but I was wondering: after 2000 years, is Britain running out of room for cemeteries?
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"wakes weeks" in June...In Scotland, Edinburgh and Glasgow have "Trades Fortnight"Never heard of any of these Jo! Shows how little I know of the North. From a Midland/Southern perspective, we get inevitable holiday rushes for school holidays (half-term being a particular nightmare, especially when it coincides with a Bank Holiday), but otherwise nothing too bad. Of course, the M25 (London Orbital aka "Car Park") is always a nightmare. 
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>When I say I doubted if you could even be buried in Wakes Week
Somewhat off topic, but I was wondering: after 2000 years, is Britain running out of room for cemeteries?
What's the sense of having wakes if you can't have a burial afterward???
But, Jazz, what did they do with the bodies before 2000 years ago? GRIN!!!
Which reminds me. Would someone PLEASE tell me how you get those icons into your posts???
TEd
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>GRIN!!!...Would someone PLEASE tell me how you get those icons into your posts???
it's all markup, teD [see purple markup link on reply screen], but be forewarned that you'll probably save keystrokes by winging it. 8-)
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Thanks tsuwm!
TEd
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old hand
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But, Jazz, what did they do with the bodies before 2000 years ago? GRIN!!!
Well, before 2000 years ago, and I guess for sometime after 1 AD, Britain was mainly a pagan world, and didn't they usually burn their dead?
Shows what I know about ancient burial practices . . .
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Pooh-Bah
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>Is Britain running out of room for cemeteries? Yes, I believe it is, although the vast majority of people, these days are cremated. In my old Yorkshire village the Church (of England) Commissioners were trying to buy land to extend the over-crowded church graveyard. The plans were opposed by neighbours of the church, who said that they did not feel that they could enjoy barbecues in their garden if they felt that there would be the possibility of a funeral appearing in their direct view. I understand that in some large cemeteries, steps are being taken to dig deeper and make a bit more room. Although the worst is to come - isn't these some population growth statistic that says that there are now more people alive today ... oh no, just looked it up, another urban legend! http://www.snopes.com/errata/dead.htm
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Jo,
Your post and URL Although the worst is to come - isn't these some population growth statistic that says that there are now more people alive today ... oh no, just looked it up, another urban legend! http://www.snopes.com/errata/dead.htm
rather amused me. Well-researched, indeed. It was very illuminating.
The question came up on a quiz programme I was watching on TV quite recently (I think it was "Who Wants to be a Millionaire", British version). The "correct" answer was that there were more people alive today that had ever died.
Oops!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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In reply to:
Well, before 2000 years ago, and I guess for sometime after 1 AD, Britain was mainly a pagan world, and didn't they usually burn their dead?
Some groups did use cremation but others buried the dead. Dotted about the British countryside are earth structures called barrows, which are basically burial mounds. Haven't we had ossuary as an AWAD at some point (sorry I should have left to meet some people ten minutes ago, but I thought no, I've just got time to finish Miscellany, so I can't look it up) and anyway how long does it take for buried bodies to decompose?
Bingley
Bingley
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ancient burial practices . . .True even by the time the Romans invaded, jazzy – hence the expression Render unto Caesar  Oh no, Marty – we’re back to Cooking With Greece – The Musical
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steps are being taken… The cry of conductors on old double-decker buses will be coming back into fashion, then: “Room for one more on top!” And thanks for setting us straight on the issue of dead ancestors, Jo - another myth gets burried!
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And thanks for setting us straight on the issue of dead ancestors, Jo - another myth gets burried!mav, I rather thought we were the issue of dead ancestors! Wonder what berried myth would taste like? I suppose the answer will be burried in the myths of thyme.
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>another myth buried!
better be careful saying this around those folks that believe that the earth is only 6000 years old -- that would make this myth just about true!
>how long does it take for buried bodies to decompose?
aren't some European countries "recycling" their burial grounds?
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old hand
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Logically, if the cemetaries are just fields of empty dirt, why not just use the headstones to pave roads and construct buildings (churches perhaps), thus creating nice open areas for parks and other recreational areas. Guess that's just about as logical as my theory that simply bulldozing Jerulasem and the surrounding area will solve all the problems in the Holy land.
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Jazzoctopus said (with his tongue in the region of his cheek?): Guess that's just about as logical as my theory that simply bulldozing Jerulasem and the surrounding area will solve all the problems in the Holy land
Sorry, Jazz, but the Romans tried that one in AD79. It wasn't a notable success, in spite of the fact that they crucified everyone they could lay their hands on at the same time.
Read Josephus. The arguments over Palestine then and now are remarkably similar ... as are the methods being used to fail to resolve them.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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The arguments over Palestine then and now are remarkably similar ... as are the methods being used to fail to resolve them...
Just that the fascists have a different coloured flag now.
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