Saturday 27 April 2013

Bicentennial Commemoration of the Battle of York - Commemorative Ceremonies, Toronto, ON

After Gord and I did the Bicentennial Commemoration of the Battle of York - Walking in Their Footsteps walking tour this morning, we stayed around for the commemorative ceremonies at Fort York.

An hour-long ceremony of remembrance will take place at 1:30 at Fort York National Historic Site in the presence of re-enactment units representing those who fought during the Battle of York, representatives of the Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Army, and four First Nations. A commemorative ceremony from 3 to 4 pm will focus on the dedication of a new memorial plaque to honour the contribution of First Nations during the Battle of York. The dedication will be followed by singing, dancing, and drumming performed by descendants of those who fought in the battle. The rededication of restored plaques presented in 1934 will take place in the presence of the original organizations—the National Society United States Daughters of 1812 and the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire.

We bought some lunch from the food trucks that were parked outside the Fort.


Gord bought fish tacos ... he said they were okay.


I bought a pulled pork sandwich from Hogtown Smoke.


My sandwich was okay ... it would have been better had the BBQ sauce already been mixed in with the meat (instead you have to do it yourself).


While we ate, we watched the end of the parade (it had started at Queen's Park).


It is estimated that there were over 6000 people at Fort York today taking part in the festivities.


The re-enactors were great!


The ceremonies were to start at 1:30pm.  We were told to stand behind some markers, which was a bit of a distance from the stage.  If you were a guest of honour, you had a seat next to the stage under a tent.

Soldiers marched in and there was applause.


Then they stood and stayed right in front of everyone.  There were First Nations dancers in front of the stage ... but we couldn't see them.


We walked around to find a spot where we would see but there weren't any.  We were bummed so left.


The set-up of the ceremonies could have been so much better and we would have stayed.

No comments: