Editorial: Time for Whanganui Anniversary Day

Vintage Weekend makes for a big Wellington Anniversary Day in Whanganui.

Anniversary Weekend is now firmly ensconced as one of the biggest on the Whanganui calendar and this one may be the biggest yet.

Too many events to list here and a booked out city really makes it feel like Whanganui's weekend.

So why is it that in 2018 we celebrate Wellington's anniversary day?

Basically, it's historical and colonial.

The Holidays Act bases the 13 anniversary holidays around New Zealand on the founding day of the old colonial provinces (with the addition of a few others).

Though abolished in 1876 many of those provincial boundaries (and therefore their anniversary day) still makes some sense in modern New Zealand; Our neighbour Taranaki, for example.

But like Auckland, whose anniversary day absurdly includes places as far away as Gisborne, we celebrate ours alongside Manawatu and Wellington.

In 19th century settler New Zealand there may have been common ground but we're now three areas with separate and distinct identities.

It's time for Whanganui Anniversary Day.

A day to celebrate our unique part of the country and its modern identity.

So, if Whanganui could move away from Wellington Anniversary Day (January 22, or the nearest Monday), in favour of its own, what options are there?

There's probably many, but here's a few to get the ball rolling.

The date the city was officially named Wanganui (January 20), having previously been called Petre, would mean it would basically fall on the same weekend as it does now and we'd retain a long weekend to help ease into the new year.

Or maybe February 1 when Whanganui was first declared a borough in 1872.

What about August 5, when just three years ago the Whanganui River Deed of Settlement was signed, to celebrate a new, less colonial beginning for Whanganui?

Whatever we call it, whenever it is in the future, have a happy Wellington Anniversary Day today.