Canada Is On Song

1880

A country's national song is called an anthem. The national song of Canada is O Canada. This is the story of how O Canada was written and how it became Canada's national anthem.

When Canadians come together in good and bad times, they like to sing about their country. They are proud to live in Canada and singing about it makes them feel loyal.Because there are two national languages in Canada, the anthem is often sung in both French and English at these times.

O Canada was sung for the first time in French. It was written to celebrate Jean-Baptiste Day in Quebec. Saint Jean-Baptiste is an important historical person in Quebec. He has always been loved by the French. Saint Jean-Baptiste is so loved that he was made the saint of French-speaking Canadians in 1908. To honour him, a special song was written for his festival day on June 24, 1880.

That day, a lawyer who lived in Quebec invited about 60 French and English speaking and important people to his house. They had a Jean-Baptiste day party. There was much food. It was a feast. As the guests ate their feast, O Canada was sung. Everyone loved the song.

At that time, there were two popular songs that people would sing at special times. God Save the Queen honoured the British who founded Canada. The Maple Leaf Forever was about the symbol of Canada ( see 1868 ). It seemed that one of these two would become the national anthem. Then in 1901, some royal visitors from Britain came on a tour of Canada. School children sang O Canada to them and soon there were three songs to choose from.

In 1906, the music and French words to O Canada were published. It was possible then to buy and read the song. In 1908, a magazine had a competition to see who could write the best words for O Canada in English. Mercy McCulloch won, but no one liked her words all that much. They liked Robert Weir's words better and over many years Robert's version became the one that everyone sang.

CANADA’S

It would take 72 more years,however before O Canada became the official, national anthem of the country.

At special times, the national anthem is sung in both French and English. The words in the French song are very different to the words in the English song.

Canadians stand to sing O Canada and men take off their hats. Everyone faces the Canadian flag when they sing. Canadians mostly sing O Canada in schools to start the day; on TV to begin or end the day; at the start of public ceremonies such as Canada Day ( see 1958 ); or at sports events like a hockey game ( see 1979 ).At the 1988 winter Olympics in Calgary, O Canada was sung in Southern Tutchone which is one of the First Nations' languages.

In good times, people like to sing O Canada to celebrate, like the ones who climbed a mountain in Vancouver on Canada day and sang the anthem at the top.

In bad times, singing O Canada can help people heal and feel hopeful again. For example, on October 22, 2014, a young, mentally ill man with a gun killed a soldier in Ottawa. People were very troubled because there is not much killing on the streets of Canada. Hockey fans in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, the USA, and people watching on TV, sang O Canada all at the exact same time on October 25, 2014. This was to honour the dead soldier and the others who had been hurt during the shooting.

One of the most delightful singings of the national anthem was made by the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. For an advertisement to bring visitors there, they made a video. On this video, they used the noises that whales make. They put these noises together so it sounds like the whales that live in the sea near there, are singing O Canada .

Although the words of the English version of O Canada have changed many times,the French version has never changed. In 1980, the government made O Canada the official national anthem, in both French and English.