Canadian Tulip Festival | |
---|---|
Genre | Horticultural |
Dates | 2 weeks leading through Victoria Day |
Location(s) | Ottawa, National Capital Region, Ontario, Canada |
Years active | 1953 – present |
Website | tulipfestival |
The Canadian Tulip Festival (French : Festival Canadien des Tulipes; Dutch : Canadees Festival van de Tulp) is a tulip festival held annually each May in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The festival claims to be the world's largest tulip festival, displaying over one million tulips, [1] with attendance of over 650,000 visitors annually. [2] Large displays of tulips are planted throughout the city, the largest of which are often in Commissioners Park on the shores of Dow's Lake, and along the Rideau Canal with 300,000 tulips planted there alone. [3]
The festival is a cultural and historical aspect of the special Canada–Netherlands relationship, having originated with commemorative donations of tulips to Canada from the Netherlands for Canadian actions during World War II, when Canadian forces led the liberation of the Netherlands and hosted the Dutch royal family in exile. [4] [5] [6] The Netherlands continues to send 20,000 bulbs to Canada each year (10,000 from the royal family and 10,000 from the Dutch Bulb Growers Association). [7]
During World War II, Seymour Cobley of the Royal Horticultural Society donated 83,000 tulips to Canada from 1941 to 1943 to honour Canadian involvement in the war. However, his donation is not known to have resulted in any major events or festivals. [7]
In 1945, the Dutch royal family sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa in gratitude for Canadians having sheltered the future Queen Juliana and her family for the preceding three years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The most noteworthy event during their time in Canada was the birth in 1943 of Princess Margriet at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. The maternity ward was temporarily declared to be extraterritorial by the Canadian government, thereby allowing Princess Margriet's citizenship to be solely influenced by her mother's Dutch citizenship. [8] [9] In 1946, Juliana sent another 20,500 bulbs requesting that a display be created for the hospital, and promised to send 10,000 more bulbs each year. By 1963 the festival featured more than 2 million tulips, rising to nearly 3 million by 1995. [7]
In the years following Queen Juliana's original donation, Ottawa became famous for its tulips and in 1953 the Ottawa Board of Trade and photographer Malak Karsh organized the first "Canadian Tulip Festival". Queen Juliana returned to celebrate the festival in 1967, and Princess Margriet returned in 2002 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the festival.
For many years, the festival featured a series of outdoor music concerts in addition to the tulips. The 1972 festival saw Liberace give an opening concert, and at the 1987 festival, Canadian singer Alanis Morissette made her first appearance at the age of 12. [10] [11] The Trews first became widely known after opening for Big Sugar at the 2003 festival. Montreal's General Rudie also gained exposure early in their career with a performance at the 2000 festival.
For a dozen years between 1994 and 2006, the Canadian Tulip Festival celebrated countries all across the world, who have also adopted the Tulip as a symbol of international friendship.[ citation needed ]
In the early 2000s, the festival became less focused on tulips, with more emphasis placed on other attractions such as the concerts and a crafts fair. Additionally, weather over the past years had affected admissions and ticket sales; when poor weather and low ticket sales for a performance by The Guess Who in 2003 made the festival lose an estimated $100,000, later concerts featured less-prominent bands, but these led to even lower ticket sales due to audiences' unfamiliarity with them, only lowered by worsening weather. In October 2006 the festival filed for bankruptcy. Despite a bailout of $75,000 from the city, in 2006 the festival had only $65,000 against debts of $750,000. To rescue the festival, David Luxton, CEO of Ottawa-based explosive detection systems manufacturer Allen-Vanguard, purchased the debt to allow it to reorganize. [11]
In 2007, the festival was reorganised under new leadership. Park admission charges were eliminated and a new feature called Celebridée: a Celebration of Ideas was introduced. Another component of the 2007 festival was a fund-raising effort in support of War Child Canada. Celebridée continued to grow since its inception in 2007. 2008's speakers included Sir Salman Rushdie, Wired's Chris Anderson, author Jared Diamond, and pianist Angela Hewitt.[ citation needed ]
In 2019, the festival once again changed leadership and management, into the hands of a younger board and management team. The goal of this team was to "Re-Root" the festival in its history and horticulture. The festival was returned to a single-site at Commissioners Park, with a Veterans Day ceremony at Beechwood Cemetery.
In 2020, the planned celebrations for the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Netherlands were conducted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, using aerial photography and 360-degree image captures to display the tulips. As part of the Liberation75 commemoration campaign, 1.1 million orange crown-shaped Liberation75-tulips (formerly known as the Orange Emperor variety), in addition to the deep red Canadian Liberator-tulips, were sent from growers in the Netherlands and planted across Canada to honour the 1.1 million Canadians who served during World War II. [12] [13]
Juliana was Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in 1980.
Beatrix is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013.
Princess Margriet of the Netherlands is the third daughter of Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard. As an aunt of the reigning monarch, King Willem-Alexander, she is a member of the Dutch Royal House and currently eighth and last in the line of succession to the throne.
The Netherlands Carillon is a 127-foot (39-m) tall campanile housing a 53-bell carillon located in Arlington County, Virginia. The instrument and tower were given in the 1950s "From the People of the Netherlands to the People of the United States of America" to thank the United States for its contributions to the liberation of the Netherlands in 1945 and for its economic aid in the years after. The Netherlands Carillon is a historic property listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of Arlington Ridge Park, which is part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. It is owned and operated by the National Park Service.
Tulip Time Festival is an annual festival held in Holland, Michigan. Tulip festivals are held in many cities around the United States of America that were founded or largely inhabited by Dutch settlers. It has been held every year in mid-May since 1929 and is currently the longest running tulip festival in the United States. The festival currently runs from the first Saturday in May through the second Sunday.
Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange is the heir apparent to the throne of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the constituent countries of Aruba, Curaçao, the Netherlands, and Sint Maarten.
Tulip festivals are held in several cities around the world, mostly in North America, usually in cities with a Dutch heritage such as Albany, New York; Ottawa, Ontario; Gatineau, Quebec; Montreal, Quebec; Holland, Michigan; Lehi, Utah; Orange City, Iowa; Pella, Iowa; Mount Vernon, Washington; and Woodburn, Oregon, and in other countries such as New Zealand, Australia, India, and England. The tulips are considered a welcome harbinger of spring, and a tulip festival permits residents to see them at their best advantage. The festivals are also popular tourist attractions. The tulips are displayed throughout the cities. In certain years the peak of tulips does not coincide with the actual festival due to climatic conditions.
Dow's Lake in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada is a small man-made lake on the Rideau Canal, situated two kilometres north of Hog's Back Falls in the middle of Ottawa. It is at the southern end of Preston Street, just south of Carling Avenue, and just to the west of Bronson Avenue. At the southern end of the lake is Carleton University, and to its west is the Dominion Arboretum, at the edge of the Central Experimental Farm.
The Ottawa Civic Hospital is one of three main campuses of The Ottawa Hospital – along with the General and Riverside campuses. With 549 beds, the Civic Campus has the region's only adult-care trauma centre, serving Eastern Ontario, the Outaouais region of Quebec and eastern Nunavut. The Civic Campus also houses the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, which provides cardiac care for patients at The Ottawa Hospital. The Civic Campus opened in 1924 and is located at 1053 Carling Avenue in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Prince Maurits Willem Pieter Hendrik of Orange-Nassau, van Vollenhoven is a member of the Dutch royal family as the eldest son of Princess Margriet of the Netherlands and Pieter van Vollenhoven.
Floriade is a flower and entertainment festival held annually in Canberra's Commonwealth Park on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin. It features extensive displays of flowering bulbs with integrated sculptures and other artistic features. Floriade comes from the Latin word floriat, which means to design with flowers.
Commissioners Park is a park in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It lies within the westernmost section of The Glebe, bounded by Dow's Lake, Preston Street, Carling Avenue and Dow's Lake Road.
Canada and the Kingdom of the Netherlands have a special relationship resulting from actions during World War II when Canada hosted the Dutch royal family in exile and then led the military liberation of the Netherlands. The special relationship is still visible today, with the Canadian government describing the Netherlands as "one of Canada's most significant trade, investment and innovation partners." In part, the annual Canadian Tulip Festival still commemorates this relationship, with a tradition of tulips sent to Canada from the Netherlands as gratitude for the Canadian actions during World War II.
Tulips are spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes in the Tulipa genus. Their flowers are usually large, showy, and brightly coloured, generally red, orange, pink, yellow, or white. They often have a different coloured blotch at the base of the tepals, internally. Because of a degree of variability within the populations and a long history of cultivation, classification has been complex and controversial. The tulip is a member of the lily family, Liliaceae, along with 14 other genera, where it is most closely related to Amana, Erythronium, and Gagea in the tribe Lilieae.
The list of the coins included are for those issued by the Royal Dutch Mint from 1970 to 2001
The Tulip Festival is held in Albany, New York every spring at Washington Park. Each year, the event lasts for a weekend and coincides with Mother's Day.
Koningsdag or King's Day is a national holiday in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Celebrated on 27 April, the date marks the birth of King Willem-Alexander. When the Dutch monarch is female, the holiday is known as Koninginnedag or Queen's Day and, under Queen Beatrix until 2013, was celebrated on 30 April. She prolonged the tradition that was born under her mother’s reign: Queen Juliana’s birthday was on April 30th.
The Canada 150 tulip, also known as the Maple Leaf tulip, is the official tulip of the 150th anniversary of Canada and was unveiled May 9, 2016, in Commissioners Park. The tulip was selectively bred with an elegant white flower and red flames, which resembles the flag of Canada. In September 2016, tulip bulbs went on sale at Home Hardware stores. For Canada's sesquicentennial celebration in 2017, the Canadian Tulip Festival in Ottawa planted over 200,000 Maple Leaf tulip bulbs.
The 150th anniversary of Canada, also known as the 150th anniversary of Confederation and promoted by the Canadian government as Canada 150, occurred in 2017 as Canada marked the sesquicentennial of Canadian Confederation.
Canadian royalty may refer to Canadians; who are members of royal families, Canadian through birth, naturalization, or marriage; or Canadian families that are given the epithet or moniker as Canadian royalty or Canadian royals. Additionally, Canada is a monarchy, so members of the Canadian monarchy are Canadian royalty.