The first mention of celebrations of Saint-Jean-Baptiste in North America dates back to 1606, when settlers en route to the future Acadia rested on the coast of Newfoundland, June 23.

[9] The second mention of celebrations, according to the Jesuit Relations, occurred on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River on the evening of June 23, 1636, with a bonfire and five cannon shots.

In Lower Canada, the celebration of the nativity of St. John the Baptist took a patriotic tone in 1834 on the initiative of one of the founders of the newspaper La Minerve, Ludger Duvernay, who would later become the first president of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society.

mon pays, mes amours" was first sung during a grand patriotic banquet gathering about sixty francophones and anglophones of Montreal,[11] in the gardens of lawyer John McDonnell, near the old Windsor Station.

The lighting of bonfires, a traditional custom on the Nativity of Saint John which ultimately reached back to pre-Christian Midsummer celebrations were still lit at night.

[4][5][6] In 1977, an Order in Council by Lieutenant Governor Hugues Lapointe, on the advice of Premier René Lévesque, declared June 24 the provincial holiday in Quebec.

The following year, the National Holiday Organizing Committee (French: Comité organisateur de la fête nationale) was created.

In 2010 and 2011, Franco-Ontarian New Democratic MP Claude Gravelle introduced a private member's bill in the House of Commons to recognize Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day as a federal holiday in Canada.

[22] Four years later, with the new Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in attendance on the eve of a general election, a riot broke out on Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day.

Many saw it as an open act of courage, and the Prime Minister's defiance impressed the electorate[citation needed] and contributed to his Liberal Party winning a significant majority the next day.

[citation needed] During the French-language network SRC's televised coverage of the 1969 Montreal parade, filmmakers Bernard Gosselin and Pierre Perrault were asked to withdraw from the airwaves after nationalist and sarcastic comments.

The Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste President, Mario Beaulieu, defended the decision to cancel these musicians' performances, by stating that the official language of the province of Quebec is French.

[27] By government regulation, however, the St-Jean program must be conducted in French (even by such internationally and nationally famous anglophone artists such as Martha Wainwright and Patrick Watson).