Nova Scotia Heritage Day in 2025

When is Heritage Day in Nova Scotia?

Heritage Day in Nova Scotia is a provincial holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February in Nova Scotia.

Heritage Day replaces the Family Day Holiday observed on the third Monday of February in other areas of Canada.

History of Heritage Day in Nova Scotia

Introduced in 2015, each year this holiday will honour a different person or event, chosen by Nova Scotian schoolchildren.

The first subject was Viola Desmond.

2024

William Hall is the 2024 Honouree. 2024 will mark the 165th anniversary of Hall being awarded the Victoria Cross. He was the first person of African descent and 3rd Canadian to be presented this distinguished award.

The captain of the HMS Shannon, William Peel, recommended Hall and fellow crew member Thomas Young for the Victoria Cross, in recognition of their “gallant conduct at a twenty-four-pounder gun... at Lucknow on the 16th November 1857.” Hall received his Victoria Cross aboard HMS Donegal in Queenstown Harbour, Ireland, on October 28, 1859.

2023

Rita Joe, a Mi’kmaw poet from Eskasoni and We’koqma’q First Nations in Unama’ki (Cape Breton Island) is the Heritage Day 2023 Honouree.

Rita Joe’s (1932-2007) first collection of poetry was published in 1978 and she went on to publish six more works and earn many honours.

Following Rita Joe, the next four honourees will be William Hall (2024), Nora Bernard (2025), J. William Comeau (2026) and Carrie Best (2027).

2022

The 2022 Honouree is The Landscape of Grand Pré World Heritage Site

To mark the 10th anniversary of the Landscape of Grand-Pré becoming a UNESCO World Heritage site, Nova Scotia will celebrate the rich heritage of this landscape which features an exceptional traditional agricultural settlement still in use today and an iconic place of memory for the Acadian diaspora.

the Landscape of Grand-Pré is located in the southern Minas Basin of Nova Scotia, the Grand-Pré marshland and archaeological sites constitute a cultural landscape bearing testimony to the development of agricultural farmland using dykes and the aboiteau wooden sluice system, started by the Acadians in the 17th century and further developed and maintained by the Planters and present-day inhabitants.

2021

Heritage day in 2021  honoured Edward Francis Arab. Edward was the grandson of some of the first Lebanese immigrants to Halifax. He graduated from Dalhousie University law school and practised until he enlisted in the army.

2020 marked the 10th anniversary of the Africville apology, and Heritage Day honoured this National Historic Site, which holds great significance to the African Nova Scotian community.

Other Years

Other days have or will recognize Maud Lewis (2019), Mona Louise Parsons (2018), Mi'kmaq heritage (2017), Joseph Howe (2016), Nora Bernard (2025), Carrie Best (2027), J. Willie Comeau (2026).

As the holiday is a provincial holiday, federal employees may not have the day off. The post will be operating and banks and restaurants are allowed to open. Supermarkets, malls and banks will be closed, along with schools and public libraries. Public transport will operate on a different schedule to a normal Monday.

Some businesses may stay closed as opening on a holiday means they have to pay employees extra to work on a holiday as according to the Nova Scotia Labour Standards Code, any employee who works on the holiday will get holiday pay, plus extra pay for the time they actually worked on the holiday; alternatively, they will get their regular pay for the day plus another paid day off.

Note that the holiday pay provisions do not apply to unionized employees who work under collective agreements, but many unionized employees will still get Heritage Day as a holiday, as statutory holidays often form part of collective agreements.