Canadian Tulip Festival

The cool weather we have been having has been good for the annual Canadian Tulip Festival in Ottawa. For those who are unfamiliar with the Tulip Festival it began back in 1953. It has now grown into the worlds largest Tulip Festival. The Tulips were a gift from the Dutch Royal family. During the second world war the Dutch royal family were given refuge in Ottawa. Princess Margriet was born in the Ottawa Civic Hospital, her room was declared Dutch soil so she could keep her Dutch nationality.

Over the next sixty years the Tulip Festival has grown in size and in importance. Many tourists come to Ottawa just to see the tulips. At Dows Lake alone they plant over 300,000 bulbs. You can find them also along the canal, Parliament Hill and Majors Hill Park. Each spring over 600,000 people from all over North America, Europe and Asia visit the tulips.

Through the 1990s and into the new millennium, the Canadian Tulip Festival celebrated the Tulip as a symbol of Peace and Friendship creating an annual international bond by twinning with Friendship Countries including the Netherlands, Turkey, France, Japan, the United States, Great Britain and Australia.

I would highly recommend going down to see the festival or visiting Ottawa from out of town. At Major's Hill Park which is situated behind the Chateau Laurier hotel. Not only are there hugh amounts of tulips to see in the daytime, there is also tents full of entertainment going most of the day and evening.