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Cup and Show Week & Canterbury Anniversary
New Zealand Cup and Show Week 7 - 15 November 2008
Show Day is Friday 14 November 2008
During the first few weeks in November, Canterbury gears up for NZ Cup and Show week and our annual anniversary day holiday.
First on the schedule is Cup week, with heaps of exciting events for those into racing, fashion and/or partying in general. Horse racing, both gallops and harness racing, form the core events and some of the purses are huge. Christchurch shops are full of race-going fashion for weeks and hats and hair attachments are always popular – check out our fashion page for more ideas. As well as fashion at the races there are fashion shows and displays all over town.
After Cup week, the country comes to town at the Royal New Zealand Show. Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association has held the annual Canterbury A&P Show every year since 1862. In 1997, the Show moved to the 100-hectare Canterbury Agricultural Park, New Zealand’s first purpose-built Show facility.
In 2006, the Show became the Royal NZ Show after being chosen to host the event until 2009 by the Royal Agricultural Society, one of the few New Zealand organisations with a Royal charter. This accolade recognises the Show as one of New Zealand’s premier agricultural events.
Christchurch Show Day is also a public holiday in Canterbury, celebrating the region’s official anniversary. The public holiday was originally held on or around 16 December, the anniversary day of the old Canterbury province marking the arrival of the First Four Ships, but it was moved to the Friday of Show Week between 1955 and 1958. The Friday had been People's Day at the Show for years, but the change offered the additional bonus of an official holiday for banks and businesses.
The definition used by Christchurch City Council to determine the date of Canterbury Anniversary Day each year is “second Friday after the first Tuesday of November (i.e. Show day will be two weeks after the first Tuesday in November - on a Friday, mainly so that it does not clash with the Melbourne Cup Racing Carnival)”. Northern & Central Canterbury areas observe Christchurch Show Day. South Canterbury observes Dominion Day, the fourth Monday in September. All other regions in New Zealand have their own Anniversary Day public holidays.
Canterbury’s Anniversary Day, 16 December, is still marked by the City Council as a flag day, when the City of Christchurch flag is flown from the Civic building on Tuam Street from 8am to sunset.
