Q: When did Show Day become Canterbury’s anniversary day?
A: New Zealand law provides an anniversary day for each province. The anniversary day for the Canterbury Province was originally 16 December, the day of the arrival in 1850 of the first two of the First Four Ships, the Charlotte Jane and the Randolph.
The Friday of the A&P Show had since at least 1918 been the People’s Day or Show Day, and sometime between 1955 and 1958, Christchurch City Council moved the anniversary day to coincide with Show Day, as this allowed banks and businesses to close and people to attend the A&P Show.
The definition for Show Day is the “second Friday after the first Tuesday of November (i.e. Show Day will be two weeks after the first Tuesday in November — on a Friday, so that it does not clash with the Melbourne Cup Racing Carnival, the Melbourne Cup being held on the first Tuesday in November).
Canterbury Show Day