Victoria Day in Canada is celebrated each year on the Monday on or before May 24. This date was the birthday of Queen Victoria who was the Queen of the British Empire and for that reason the sovereign of Canada as well at the time of the Confederation.  Queen Victoria died in 1901.  Since that year until 1952 Victoria Day was a national holiday fixed on May 24.  In 1953 the new date of Victoria Day, being the Monday on or before May 24, was introduced.