June 24 marks Saint Jean Baptiste Day. Held annually, it's the feast day of St. John the Baptist, a Jewish preacher who baptized Jesus in the River Jordan.
It is a day of celebration in Quebec and other areas of French Canada.
Saint Jean Baptiste Day is also known as "la Saint-Jean," "St John the Baptist Day," "Fête nationale du Québec" and "Quebec's National Holiday."
Midsummer festivals, such as those linked with the June solstice, were held in Europe for thousands of years.
When people converted to Christianity, elements of these festivals were combined with feast days for Christian saints.
In France, the celebrations around the feast day of Saint John the Baptist were widely enjoyed and French colonists introduced these traditions to North America.
The tradition landed in Canada with the first French colonists. The first mention of celebrations of Saint-Jean-Baptiste in North America dates back to 1606, when settlers en route to the future Acadia rested on the coast of Newfoundland, June 23.
