Defender of Ukraine Day

show This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Ukrainian. (February 2016) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Ukrainian article. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 422 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary Content in this edit is translated from the existing Ukrainian Wikipedia article at [[:uk:День захисника України]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|uk|День захисника України}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

The Day of Defender of Ukraine
Official name	День захисників та захисниць[1]
Significance	Celebrating the armed forces during Intercession of the Theotokos[2][3]. 14 October is also the date of the founding of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Day of Ukrainian Cossacks[2]
Celebrations	concerts, expos, and festivals[4]
Date	14 October
Next time	14 October 2021 (2021-10-14)
Frequency	annual

Defender of Ukraine Day (Ukrainian: День захисника України, Den' zakhysnyka Ukrayiny) is a state holiday in Ukraine celebrated annually on 14 October.^[5][6] Its first celebration was in 2015.^[7][8] Starting from 2015, this day is considered a public holiday (this is thus a day off in Ukraine).^[9][10]

History[]

On 14 October 2014, a decree by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko decreed the new holiday due to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine (2014–present) and decommunization in Ukraine.^[11] This decree was approved by the Ukrainian parliament on 5 March 2015.^[12] On 24 August 2014 (Independence Day of Ukraine) President Poroshenko proclaimed that Ukraine should not celebrate the holidays of the "military-historical calendar of Russia" but "We will honor the defenders of our homeland, not someone else's".^[13]

The holiday replaced the former 23 February's holiday called Defender of the Fatherland Day, which has its origin in the Soviet Union.^[14] As the Ukrainian SSR, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union from 1922 until Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union on 24 August 1991.^[15] On 12 October 2015, the National Bank of Ukraine put into circulation 50,000 pieces of 5 hryvnia coins with an inscription "Day of Defender of Ukraine".^[8]

On 14 July 2021 the Ukrainian parliament officially changed the name of the holiday to День захисників та захисниць (Den' zakhysnykiv i zakhysnyts') to honour the female defenders of Ukraine (in Ukrainian grammar захисників is the masculine form of the word defender and захисниць the feminine form)^[1]

14 October in Ukrainian history[]

The chairman of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance Volodymyr Viatrovych motivated the choice of the date for 14 October on the Ukrainian historical tradition of honoring the Ukrainian army on the day of the Intercession of the Theotokos.^[12][1] This holiday has been celebrated by Ukrainians since the 12th century.^[12] The holiday was especially popular among Ukrainian Cossacks, who celebrated it since at least the 17th century as they believed the Mother of God (also known as Theotokos) to be their patroness.^[12] Fourteen October is also the Day of the Ukrainian Cossacks.^[11]

During the Ukrainian War of Independence (1917–1920) the military symbolism of the holiday was adopted by the soldiers of the Ukrainian People's Army.^[1]

In an effort to adopt some Cossack traditions, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (1942–1956) chose the day of the Intercession of the Theotokos to be the official day of their establishment.^[12]

See also[]

• Public holidays in Ukraine
• Defender of the Fatherland Day

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Defender of Ukraine Day.