Canberra Day, a public holiday in the Australian Capital Territory, takes place on the second Monday in March.
It commemorates the official naming of Canberra on March 12, 1913, by Lady Denham, wife of the then Australian Governor-General Lord Denham (Thomas Denham, Third Baron).
Previously Canberra Day was celebrated on the third Monday in March but this was changed in 2007 in order to fall closer to the actual anniveresary of the naming of Canberra.
The Canberra site was selected as the nation's capital in 1908. American architect Walter Burley Griffin won a competition in 1910 to design the city and construction began in 1913.
The city's name is said to derive from the local Aboriginal word Kanbarra, meaning "meeting place," in the old Ngunnawal language.
Canberra Day is within the nine-day period of the Canberra Festival which is marked by the flight of large numbers of hot air balloons and the staging of concerts and dance performances as well as special exhibitions in Canberra galleries and museums.
