A national day is a day on which celebrations mark the statehood or nationhood of a state or its people. It may be the date of independence, of becoming a republic, of becoming a federation, or a significant date for a patron saint or a ruler (such as a birthday, accession, or removal). The national day is often a public holiday. Many countries have more than one national day. Denmark and the United Kingdom are the only countries without a national day. Britain abandoned Empire Day, while Denmark has what is not a public holiday but an unofficial celebration called Constitution Day.[1] National days emerged with the age of nationalism, with most appearing during the 19th and 20th centuries.[2]
Nations that are not broadly recognized sovereign states are shown in pink. Defunct states are highlighted in light grey. For nations that are dependent on, or part of, a sovereign state (such as federal states, autonomous regions, or colonies), the name of the sovereign state is shown in parentheses.
Days that are not fixed to the Gregorian calendar are sorted by their occurrences.
US Flag Day, commemorates the date American Samoa became a US territory and first flew the US flag in 1900, as well as the date of adoption of the American Samoan flag in 1960.
Saint George's Day, patron saint of Aragon and his Crown. An XIII legend holds that during the battle of Alcoraz in 1096, Saint George appeared in support of Aragonese army force.
Independence Day, from the United Kingdom in 1966. Also the anniversary of the formal proclamation of Barbados as a Republic in the Commonwealth in 2021.
Iris Day[fr; nl] - 8 May is during the blooming season of the iris (also called fleur de Lys), the symbol of the Region. Also, victory day over the Nazis in World War II and a former feast day of St. Michael, patron saint of the Region.
Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) fighters enter Asmara in 1991 and Eritrea becomes a de facto independent state; United Nations recognizes Eritrea's independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a UN-supervised referendum on nationhood.
Hari Kebangsaan, independence from the United Kingdom (as Malaya) in 1957. Also known as Hari Kebangsaan (National Day) in Malay.
16 September
Malaysia Day, formation of Malaysia by uniting Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore into a single country in 1963. Proposed to be the second national day after Hari Merdeka.
Freedom Day, withdrawal of the last British troops from Malta in 1979
7 June
Sette Giugno, bread riot of 1919 in which 4 Maltese men died
8 September
Victory Day, celebrating the victory of the Knights of St. John over the Ottoman Empire in the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, the end of the French occupation in 1800, and the surrender of Italy to the Allies in 1943
Sabah Day, is celebrated to commemorate Sabah's independence from United Kingdom before joining Malaysia along with Sarawak and Singapore on 16 September 1963. It has since been celebrated since 2023.
Does not have a recognized national day (see proposed British national day), although the King's Official Birthday (King Charles III's was announced as being the third Saturday in June) is sometimes considered as such, for example, in British diplomatic institutions overseas
United Nations
24 October
United Nations Day, an annual commemorative day, reflecting the official creation of the United Nations on 24 October 1945
August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days.
Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. In French, it is formally called the Fête nationale française ; legally it is known as le 14 juillet.
German Unity Day is the National Day of Germany, celebrated on 3 October as a public holiday. It commemorates German reunification in 1990 when the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany, so that for the first time since 1945 there existed a single German state. German Unity Day on 3 October has been the German National Holiday since 1990, when the reunification was formally completed.
July is the seventh month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. It was named by the Roman Senate in honour of Roman general Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., being the month of his birth. Before then it was called Quintilis, being the fifth month of the calendar that started with March.
The Line Islands, Teraina Islands or Equatorial Islands are a chain of 11 atolls and coral islands in the central Pacific Ocean, south of the Hawaiian Islands. Eight of the atolls are parts of Kiribati. The remaining three—Jarvis Island, Kingman Reef, and Palmyra Atoll—are territories of the United States grouped with the United States Minor Outlying Islands. The Line Islands, all of which were formed by volcanic activity, are one of the longest island chains in the world, stretching 2,350 km (1,460 mi) from northwest to southeast. One of them, Starbuck Island, is near the geographic center of the Pacific Ocean. Another, Kiritimati, has the largest land area of any atoll in the world. Only Kiritimati, Tabuaeran, and Teraina have a permanent population. Besides the 11 confirmed atolls and islands, Filippo Reef is shown on some maps, but its existence is doubted.
The New Year is the time or day at which a new calendar year begins and the calendar's year count increments by one. Many cultures celebrate the event in some manner. In the Gregorian calendar, the most widely used calendar system today, New Year occurs on January 1. This was also the first day of the year in the original Julian calendar and the Roman calendar.
Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 to 1992.
A public holiday, national holiday, federal holiday, statutory holiday, or legal holiday is a holiday generally established by law and is usually a non-working day during the year.
Vesak, also known as Buddha Jayanti, Buddha Purnima, Buddha Day, is a holiday traditionally observed by Buddhists in South Asia and Southeast Asia, as well as Tibet and Mongolia. It is the most important Buddhist festival. The festival commemorates the birth, enlightenment (Nibbāna), and passing (Parinirvāna) of Gautama Buddha in Theravada, Tibetan Buddhism and Navayana.
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of a dependent territory or colony. The commemoration of the independence day of a country or nation celebrates when a country is free from all forms of colonialism; free to build a country or nation without any interference from other nations.
Armistice Day, later known as Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth and Veterans Day in the United States, is commemorated every year on 11 November to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, at 5:45 am for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I, which took effect at 11:00 am—the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918 although, according to Thomas R. Gowenlock, an intelligence officer with the U.S. First Division, shelling from both sides continued for the rest of the day, ending only at nightfall. The armistice initially expired after a period of 36 days and had to be extended several times. A formal peace agreement was reached only when the Treaty of Versailles was signed the following year.
Commonwealth Day is the annual celebration of the Commonwealth of Nations, held on the second Monday in March. While the date holds some official status in select member states of the Commonwealth, observances of the date are not uniform across the Commonwealth, and the date is not celebrated as a public holiday in most Commonwealth countries.
Republic Day is the name of a holiday in several countries to commemorate the day when they became republics.
The King's Official Birthday is the selected day in most Commonwealth realms on which the birthday of the monarch is officially celebrated in those countries. It does not necessarily correspond to the date of the monarch's actual birth.
Constitution Day is a holiday to honour the constitution of a country. Constitution Day is often celebrated on the anniversary of the signing, promulgation or adoption of the constitution, or in some cases, to commemorate the change to constitutional monarchy.
Croatia held an independence referendum on 19 May 1991, following the Croatian parliamentary elections of 1990 and the rise of ethnic tensions that led to the breakup of Yugoslavia. With 83 percent turnout, voters approved the referendum, with 93 percent in favor of independence. Subsequently, Croatia declared independence and the dissolution of its association with Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991, but it introduced a three-month moratorium on the decision when urged to do so by the European Community and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe through the Brioni Agreement. The war in Croatia escalated during the moratorium, and on 8 October 1991, the Croatian Parliament severed all remaining ties with Yugoslavia. In 1992, the countries of the European Economic Community granted Croatia diplomatic recognition and Croatia was admitted to the United Nations.
Pakistan Day or Pakistan Resolution Day, also Republic Day, is a national holiday in Pakistan primarily commemorating the adoption of the first Constitution of Pakistan during the transition of the Dominion of Pakistan to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on 23 March 1956 making Pakistan the world's first Islamic republic. The day also celebrates the adoption of the Lahore Resolution by the Muslim League at the Minar-e-Pakistan which called for the creation of an independent sovereign state derived from the provinces with Muslim majorities located in the North-West and East of British India on 23 March 1940.
The independence of Croatia was a process started with the changes in the political system and the constitutional changes in 1990 that transformed the Socialist Republic of Croatia into the Republic of Croatia, which in turn proclaimed the Christmas Constitution, and held the 1991 Croatian independence referendum.
↑ "Bastille Day – 14th July". Official Website of France. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Commemorating the storming of the Bastille on 14th July 1789, Bastille Day takes place on the same date each year. The main event is a grand military parade along the Champs-Élysées, attended by the President of the Republic and other political leaders. It is accompanied by fireworks and publics [sic] dances in towns throughout the whole of France.
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