Nova Scotia Heritage Day was first celebrated on the third Monday of February in 2015. The same third Monday is celebrated as Islander Day or Family Day in many provinces and territories across Canada. Nova Scotia Heritage Day was instituted as a statutory holiday by the Nova Scotia Liberal Party leader Stephen McNeil. He chose the third Monday in February as the Nova Scotia Heritage Day and the highlight of the date is honouring a person or a particular event. It has been decided that every year, a new person or a different event will be honoured or commemorated. The person or the event will be chosen by the school children of Nova Scotia.
In 2015, Viola Desmond was honoured. Subsequent Nova Scotia Heritage Day celebrations will be celebrated Mi'kmaq heritage, Joseph Howe, Africville, Edward Francis Arab, Carrie Best, Nora Bernard, J. Willie Comeau, William Hall, Grand-Pré National Historic Site, Rita Joe, Mona Louise Parsons and Maud Lewis.
Every year, the same day will be celebrated as Islander Day, Family Day and Nova Scotia Heritage Day. Family Day in British Columbia is celebrated on the second Monday instead of the third in February. Islander Day has been celebrated in Prince Edward Island since 2009. It was initially the second Monday in February but then the third Monday was chosen to bring in some uniformity of holidays across the provinces.
It must be noted that neither the Islander Day nor the Nova Scotia Heritage Day are federal holidays. Both holidays were decided upon owing to an emerging need to have a holiday in February. Just as holidays on Saturdays and Sundays are moved to Mondays in the United States and many other countries to ensure that people don’t lose out on scheduled or preset holidays, the Nova Scotia Heritage Day was designed to offer a break to people sometime in the mid of February.