National holiday

A national holiday is a statutory holiday enacted by a country to commemorate the country itself. It is usually the anniversary of the country's independence, the signature of its constitution, or other significant event; in some cases it is the saint's day of the country's patron saint.

January 20: Armenia
January 26: Australia (Australia Day)
January 26: India (Republic Day)
February 11: Japan (National Foundation Day) (See Note Below.)
March 17: Ireland (St. Patrick's Day)
April 23: Turkey (Children's Day, marks foundation of National Assembly in 1920)
April 30: The Netherlands (Koninginnedag, Queen's birthday)
May 9: Jersey and Guernsey (Liberation Day)
May 17: Norwegian Constitution Day
May 19: Turkey (Youth Day, marks first step on organizing resistance against allied occupation after WWI, 1919)
June 2: Italy (Birth of the Italian Republic)
June 5: Denmark (Grundlovsdag, celebrating the first Danish Constitution of 1849)
June 10: Portugal (National Day)
June 6: Sweden (King Gustav I of Sweden crowned 1523)
July 1: Canada (Canada Day)
July 4: United States (Independence Day)
July 5: Isle of Man (Tynwald Day)
July 14: France (Bastille Day)
July 20: Colombia (Independence Day, 1810)
July 21: Belgium (Nationale feestdag)
July 29: Faroe Islands (Ólavsøka)
August 9: Singapore (National Day)
August 15: India (Independence Day)
August 24: Ukraine (Independence Day)
August 30: Turkey (Independence Day, 1922)
September 18: Chile (Independence Day, 1810)
October 1: People's Republic of China
October 1: Tuvalu (Independence Day)
October 3: Germany (Reunification)
October 10: Republic of China (Double Tenth Day)
October 12: Spain
October 26: Austria
October 29: Turkey (Republic Day, 1923)
November 18: Latvia (Independence Day)
December 6: Finland (Independence Day)

Some nations (in the cultural sense) have their own national holidays. In cases in which the nation is represented by a subnational government in a larger country, that government may make the holiday statutory.

Examples:

June 24: Quebec, Canada (Fête nationale du Québec or Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day)
July 11: Flanders, Belgium
September 11: Catalonia, Spain
September 27: Wallonia, Belgium

Some subnational entities also commemorate themselves with statutory holidays that do not relate to a particular feeling of nationalism.

Note: In Japan, besides National Foundation Day on February 11, which is a National Day, there is also a National Holiday (国民の休日, kokumin no kyujitsu) on May 4, between Constitution Day on May 3 and Kodomo no hi (Children's Day) on May 5. The whole nation takes a holiday for three consecutive days, giving the term National Holiday a different meaning.

National holiday

See also