Alex Trebek is one. So are Jim Carrey, Celine Dion and Lorne Michaels. These famous Canadians celebrated Queen Victoria’s birthday this past Tuesday along with the rest of the nation. This Saturday, Stanford’s Canada Club will honor the date with an eight-hour Canoe Party at Lyman Atrium.

“Despite the fact that Canadians look just like Americans and speak almost exactly the same, most Canadians feel a strong affinity to their home and native land and are always glad to meet other Canadians,” said Mike Dolphin, a graduate student in aeronautics and astronautics and prime minister of the Canadian Club. The group regularly organizes events to promote Canadian culture and provides a meeting place for Canadians on campus.

The club’s Canoe Party this Saturday will be in honor of the May 24 holiday, declared a national day of celebration by the Legislature of the Province of Canada in 1845. The event will run from 4 p.m. to midnight at Lyman Atrium and is free for all students. It will feature, appropriately enough, a canoe filled with beverages, as well as a barbecue, games of street hockey and traditional Canadian songs.

After Confederation, the Queen’s birthday is celebrated every year on May 24 unless that date is a Sunday. After the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, an act was passed by the Canadian parliament establishing a legal holiday on May 24 — or the day after if May 24 fell on a Sunday — under the name Victoria Day.

“The weekend also serves as a good play on words,” said Dolphin. “In many parts of Canada, especially in the east, beer comes in either a case of 12 or a ‘two-four,’ 24. Thus, many people call Victoria Day ‘May Two-Four,’ symbolizing both the significant date and the reference to beer.”

In Canada, the May 24 weekend normally symbolizes the coming of summer. It often falls on the first weekend of the year with good weather, and Canadians take it upon themselves to get outside for the festivities. In Vancouver, the date marks the official opening of recreational beaches.

“Beyond a reason to party and celebrate the coming of summer — remember that in Canada, the days are a lot longer in summer than they are here, so summer is a really big deal — Victoria Day holds little historical significance for most Canadians,” Dolphin said. “Most people do not sing ‘God Save the Queen’ or anything like that.”