Concert of the Canadas Part 1: Little March

Town & Country Prospects Part 5 Municipal Horizons Part 7 March 21, 2023. Original Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Mărțișor: a tradition celebrated at the beginning of spring, in the month of March, and the name of the associated object made from two intertwined red and white strings with hanging tassel in Romania and Moldova, very similar to Martenitsa tradition in Bulgaria and Martinka in North Macedonia and traditions of other populations from Southeastern Europe. Wikipedia

Resolved:
That starting March 25, 2024, the day of the first new moon in March
will be dedicated to appreciating, serving and taking part in Canada --
the peoples and the nations; the towns and the countryside; the lands and the waters.  

This Evening Muse post is a side note to two ongoing trains of thought introduced earlier: Municipal Horizons, reflections on the 2022 municipal election, and Town & Country Prospects, which deals with the promise and the pitfalls of municipal restructuring in Waterloo Country (see index below).*

Both these sequences hint at a kind of civic movement. So far, the primary focus of these “musings” has been the local/regional dimension: my city, Kitchener, which is inextricably connected with the other cities, towns, villages and neighbourhoods in what used to be Waterloo County, and with our corner of the land that is Ontario, Canada: the Grand River watershed. Now I’m shifting attention to Canada as a whole: the land, the peoples and the nation state.   

I’m particularly interested in how we practice our democracy. I’ve been trying to imagine a movement dedicated to integration, balance and harmony within and among the various spheres of democratic representation in Canada, or “the Canadas,” as I like to say. To that end, I’m imagining a new celebration of the True North in March that emphasizes the land and the peoples, rather than the arrangements of 1867. 

The inspiration came from learning about Mărțișor, an ancient celebration of the beginning of spring, a new year of planting and growing, symbolized by red and white strings intertwined and ending in a tassel that people wear at this time of year in Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria and North Macedonia.

The red symbolizes the warm months of the year; the white is winter. The string is tied in a bow with a trinket or charm attached. A Mărțișor can be given as a gift, like a Valentine; pinned on, like a Remembrance Day poppy, and hung on branches, like a Christmas ornament, but outside, on living trees and bushes.

Since the red and white are the official colours of Canada (as well as Poland, England, Austria and Peru), the thought occurred to me: Could we adopt a variation of the Mărțișor as a symbol that could serve, among other good purposes, as a corrective to the way the Canada’s flag has, of late, been appropriated by Freedom Trucker, F____ Trudeau and Make Canada Great Again types? 

So the symbol came first. The idea of a new addition to our calendar of special days followed. 

Mărțișor means “little March” in Romanian. Usually this means March 1st, a throwback to the Roman New Year. There’s also a tradition of celebrating the beginning of spring on the first new moon in March. I rather like the idea of another “moveable feast” that follows a lunar cycle, like Easter and Chinese New Year. 

Lunar Little March happens immediately after the solar spring equinox this year, and on a Tuesday, which seems a fortuitous time to start something. Next year it will be a few days later, on the 25th.   

The hope is that this new special day (but not necessarily another bank holiday) can serve as a refuge for those of us who understand why, in the light of the truth about the residential school tragedy and other unspeakable historical wrongs, Canada Day has been diminished as a celebration opportunity, but who don’t want to give up on Canada altogether. 

Lunar Little March in the True North is not intended to serve as an alternative to Canada Day, but as a complement, not just to July 1st, but to the full span of “Celebrate Canada” days designed, as the Department of Canadian Heritage explains, to “highlight our ethnic, linguistic, cultural and regional diversity.” 

Currently, officially recognized Celebrate Canada days include:

National Indigenous Peoples Day – June 21;

Saint-Jean-Baptiste / Quebec National Day – June 24;

Canadian Multiculturalism Day – June 27;

Canada Day – July 1;

National Acadian Day – August 15.

I consider this official list, and the purposes behind it, as a work in progress, just as my Canada is a work in progress. I’ve mused about adding:

Victoria Day (which I like to imagine as a Fête Nationale d’Ontario) - May 24;

Emancipation Day - August 1;

Orange Shirt Day / National Day for Truth and Reconciliation - Sept 30;

Canadian Thanksgiving - 2nd Monday of October, 

and now, Lunar Little March in the True North.

As a new year celebration, Little March can be an opportunity for making or renewing resolutions. I recommend resolving to do things, start things, make things, and to add things to your life, rather than to give up things. And always in the civic context, not by ourselves or for ourselves alone. 

My resolve for this preliminary Little March is to dedicate myself to developing and articulating what I have in mind for as long as it takes to make it readily comprehensible. The aim is to make friends, find colleagues, and join with associates to try to make good things happen. In so doing, even if there are only three or four of us, we could become a kind of movement, or at least a movement in seedling form.   

My purpose here, in proposing a symbol, a holiday and a movement, is reconciliation -- in other words, making peace, but true peace, by either resolving differences or harmonizing their effects, as opposed to settling for peace through compromise or imposing peace through victory and surrender. 

Since we’re talking about doing things in the political or civic realm, the movement I’m imagining touches on the role of political parties in liberal democratic cultures and societies. But I’m not imagining a new political party. The aim is to complement the partisan spectrum as it has evolved over time in ways that harmonize difference, not to overturn or replace what exists. 

The “doing” I’m imagining includes participating in an election when it comes around, which is basically a collective deliberation process culminating in a decision about representation. But that’s only one, relatively minor aspect of civic engagement in the fullest sense. Active citizenship can take many forms, day in and day out, in a wide variety of settings. 

Because the civic realm means living in proximity with other human beings in cities, towns, villages and their hinterlands, this kind of citizenship cannot be practiced in isolation. That’s why, of all the rights and freedoms outlined in the constitution, freedom of association is the most relevant and precious in this context. Doing things invariably requires working with others, for others, or having others work for you. 

A political party is a mechanism for coming together and combining efforts. But a party is also a partition: it separates, divides, detaches. When political partisanship sets citizens against one another along familiar left versus right lines, elections become ritualized contests that are, thankfully, bloodless, but also relentless: There’s no mechanism for settling or solving the issues at hand; if one point of contention fades away, another inevitably takes its place. The wrangling goes on forever. 

I’m not talking about a non-partisan approach, which would involve neutrality, non-commitment or disassociation. I’m looking for ways to be committed, to participate in collective deliberation and decision-making, and to work with others. That’s why I’m proposing an omni-partisan movement, rather than another political party or faction to enter the fray. 

There is no intention to contest anything or anyone, including division. Parting ways can be a peaceful resolution when differences seem irreconcilable. It can also be an efficiency measure, allowing division of labour and concentration of resources. 

Harmony requires difference. Solidarity can be monotonous, dull, inert …. and sometimes dangerous.

*Index to Ongoing Series of Musings

Town & Country Prospects Part 1: The A-word

Town & Country Prospects Part 2: Bigger Isn't Always Better

Town & Country Prospects Part 3: Better Together

Town & Country Prospects Part 4: Residents, Citizens, Ratepayers

______________________________________

Municipal Horizons Part 1: Towards a Balanced Order

Municipal Horizons Part 2: Connect, Converse, Organize, Do Things

Municipal Horizons Part 3: An Omni-Partisan Approach

Municipal Horizons Part 4: WaterlooRegionVotes.org

Municipal Horizons Part 5: Voting on, for & with the Earth

Municipal Horizons Part 6: A Grounded Approach

Municipal Horizons Part 7: Election Hangover / Some Particulars