Transfer Day

On March 31, the United States Virgin Islands celebrate Transfer Day. It commemorates the 1917 transfer of the islands from Denmark to the United States. The islands were formerly controlled by a number of European countries until being handed up to Denmark in 1754. Transfer Day may have happened years ago, but the United States Senate refused negotiations due to the Panama Canal's construction and finance. Following wartime cash constraints and the threat of a German invasion of Denmark, both parties considered the trade as mutually advantageous.

Annual transfer day celebrations are now held in the Virgin Islands. "Transfer Day is marked annually with a military parade and many ceremonial and cultural events across all the islands," according to a St. Croix website. "A reenactment of the transfer will commence at 4 p.m. Tuesday on the lawns of the 1874 lime-green, white-shuttered Legislature building," according to a 1987 announcement. On March 31, 1917, that was the exact time the event took place." The Danish also reenacted their departure, saying, "The 196-foot-long, three-masted, full-rigged Danish government training ship Danmark has sailed here from Copenhagen, especially for the occasion." The Danish cadets and officers will represent the officers and crew of the Danish cruiser Valkyrien, which took the last Danish governor and his formal party back to Denmark in 1917."

When: March 31th