Culture of Canada
The culture of Canada embodies the artistic, culinary, literary, humour, musical, political and social elements that are representative of Canada and Canadians. Throughout Canada’s history, its culture has been influenced by European culture and traditions, mostly by the British and French, and by its own indigenous cultures.[1] Over time, elements of the cultures of Canada’s immigrant populations have become incorporated to form a Canadian cultural mosaic.[1][2] Certain segments of Canada’s population have, to varying extents, also been influenced by American culture due to shared language (in English-speaking Canada), significant media penetration and geographic proximity.[3][4]
.svg)
Canada is often characterized as being “very progressive, diverse, and multicultural”.[5] Canada’s federal government has often been described as the instigator of multicultural ideology because of its public emphasis on the social importance of immigration.[6] Canada’s culture draws from its broad range of constituent nationalities, and policies that promote a just society are constitutionally protected.[7] Canadian Government policies—such as publicly funded health care; higher and more progressive taxation; outlawing capital punishment; strong efforts to eliminate poverty; an emphasis on cultural diversity; strict gun control; the legalization of same-sex marriage, pregnancy terminations, euthanasia and cannabis — are social indicators of the country’s political and cultural values.[8][9][10] Canadians identify with the country’s institutions of health care, military peacekeeping, the national park system and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.[11][12]
The Canadian government has influenced culture with programs, laws and institutions. It has created crown corporations to promote Canadian culture through media, such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and promotes many events which it considers to promote Canadian traditions. It has also tried to protect Canadian culture by setting legal minimums on Canadian content in many media using bodies like the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Development of popular culture
Themes and symbols of pioneers, trappers, and traders played an important part in the early development of Canadian culture.[32] Modern Canadian culture as it is understood today can be traced to its time period of westward expansion and nation building.[33] Contributing factors include Canada’s unique geography, climate, and cultural makeup. Being a cold country with long winter nights for most of the year, certain unique leisure activities developed in Canada during this period including hockey and embracement of the summer indigenous game of lacrosse.[34][35][36]
By the 19th century Canadians came to believe themselves possessed of a unique “northern character,” due to the long, harsh winters that only those of hardy body and mind could survive.[37] This hardiness was claimed as a Canadian trait, and such sports as snowshoeing and cross-country skiing that reflected this were asserted as characteristically Canadian.[38] During this period the churches tried to steer leisure activities, by preaching against drinking and scheduling annual revivals and weekly club activities.[39] In a society in which most middle-class families now owned a harmonium or piano, and standard education included at least the rudiments of music, the result was often an original song.[40] Such stirrings frequently occurred in response to noteworthy events, and few local or national excitements were allowed to pass without some musical comment.[41][42]
By the 1930s radio played a major role in uniting Canadians behind their local or regional teams. Rural areas were especially influenced by sports coverage and the propagation of national myths.[43] Outside the sports and music arena Canadians express the national characteristics of being hard working, peaceful, orderly and polite.[44]
Symbols
Main articles: National symbols of Canada and Canadian royal symbols
One of the national symbols of Canada, the beaver is depicted on the Canadian five-cent piece and was on the first Canadian postage stamp, c. 1859.
Predominant symbols of Canada include the maple leaf, beaver, and the Canadian horse.[111][112][113] Many official symbols of the country such as the Flag of Canada have been changed or modified over the past few decades to Canadianize them and de-emphasise or remove references to the United Kingdom.[114] Other prominent symbols include the sports of hockey and lacrosse, the Canada Goose, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian Rockies,[115] and more recently the totem pole and Inuksuk.[116] With material items such as Canadian beer, maple syrup, tuques, canoes, nanaimo bars, butter tarts and the Quebec dish of poutine being defined as uniquely Canadian.[116][117] Symbols of the Canadian monarchy continue to be featured in, for example, the Arms of Canada, the armed forces, and the prefix Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship. The designation Royal remains for institutions as varied as the Royal Canadian Armed Forces, Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet
Canada is often characterized as being “very progressive, diverse, and multicultural”.[5] Canada’s federal government has often been described as the instigator of multicultural ideology because of its public emphasis on the social importance of immigration.[6] Canada’s culture draws from its broad range of constituent nationalities, and policies that promote a just society are constitutionally protected.[7] Canadian Government policies—such as publicly funded health care; higher and more progressive taxation; outlawing capital punishment; strong efforts to eliminate poverty; an emphasis on cultural diversity; strict gun control; the legalization of same-sex marriage, pregnancy terminations, euthanasia and cannabis — are social indicators of the country’s political and cultural values.[8][9][10] Canadians identify with the country’s institutions of health care, military peacekeeping, the national park system and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.[11][12]
The Canadian government has influenced culture with programs, laws and institutions. It has created crown corporations to promote Canadian culture through media, such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and promotes many events which it considers to promote Canadian traditions. It has also tried to protect Canadian culture by setting legal minimums on Canadian content in many media using bodies like the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Visual arts
Main article: Canadian art
Indigenous artists were producing art in the territory that is now called Canada for thousands of years prior to the arrival of European settler colonists and the eventual establishment of Canada as a nation state.[120] Like the peoples that produced them, indigenous art traditions spanned territories that extended across the current national boundaries between Canada and the United States.[121] The majority of indigenous artworks preserved in museum collections date from the period after European contact and show evidence of the creative adoption and adaptation of European trade goods such as metal and glass beads.[122] Canadian sculpture has been enriched by the walrus ivory, muskox horn and caribou antler and soapstone carvings by the Inuit artists.[123] These carvings show objects and activities from the daily life, myths and legends of the Inuit.[124] Inuit art since the 1950s has been the traditional gift given to foreign dignitaries by the Canadian government.[125]
The works of most early Canadian painters followed European trends.[126] During the mid-19th century, Cornelius Krieghoff, a Dutch-born artist in Quebec, painted scenes of the life of the habitants (French-Canadian farmers). At about the same time, the Canadian artist Paul Kane painted pictures of indigenous life in western Canada. A group of landscape painters called the Group of Seven developed the first distinctly Canadian style of painting.[127] All these artists painted large, brilliantly coloured scenes of the Canadian wilderness.
Since the 1930s, Canadian painters have developed a wide range of highly individual styles. Emily Carr became famous for her paintings of totem poles in British Columbia.[128] Other noted painters have included the landscape artist David Milne, the painters Jean-Paul Riopelle, Harold Town and Charles Carson and multi-media artist Michael Snow. The abstract art group Painters Eleven, particularly the artists William Ronald and Jack Bush, also had an important impact on modern art in Canada.[129] Government support has played a vital role in their development enabling visual exposure through publications and periodicals featuring Canadian art, as has the establishment of numerous art schools and colleges across the country.[130]
Courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Canada