International Women's Day - the history and traditions of the holiday. International Women's Day - the history and traditions of the holiday What does March 8 mean?
Even a preschooler will tell without hesitation that March 8 is annually celebrated as a bouquet and candy International Women's Day, but not every adult is familiar with unusual story this beloved holiday. How did the tradition of congratulating the beautiful half of humanity originate, and what exactly was the reason for the appearance of this wonderful spring holiday on the calendar?
Origin story
The historical roots of a fun and flower-filled holiday have a feminist and political flavor. For the first time, the day of March 8 appears in the events of the distant 1901. On that day, American housewives filled the streets of Chicago with pots and pans turned upside down. So original way they wanted to attract the attention of society and the authorities. The procession participants demanded the equalization of political rights, respect for themselves, the opportunity to work in production and serve in the army next to men. Seven years later, the feminists repeated their demands, but on a national scale. After that, National Women's Day was proclaimed in the United States.
The parent of International Women's Day is Clara Zetkin, a German communist, a female reformer who made a huge contribution to upholding women's rights. It was she who, as the leader of the women's group of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, in a difficult year for the communists in 1910 at the International Women's Conference, made a proposal to establish the Day of Solidarity of Working Women of the World.
Clara Zetkin believed that the annual holiday, celebrated on the same day, would unite women from different countries in the struggle for equal rights. The main purpose of the new holiday was the struggle for freedom and equality of female workers. This initiative received a response in the form of a wave of rallies that swept through Europe. The first women's holidays in different countries were celebrated on different dates in March. And only in 1914 did the workers of the world celebrate their holiday on March 8.
On March 8, 1957, women workers in New York garment factories came out to fight for their rights. They actively demanded better working conditions, a reduction in the inhuman 16-hour work day, and an increase in wages that were meager compared to men. As a result of this event, a women's trade union appeared, which continued its activities in the future.
The UN adopted the celebration of International Women's Day in 1975, this year was also declared international year women, and the next ten years, from 1976 to 1985, proclaimed the International Decade of Women. In 1977, a resolution was issued according to which the Day of the struggle for the rights of women was dated for March 8th. Now it's spring women's holiday celebrated in more than 30 countries around the world. In some states, it is still a working day.
In Russia, Women's Day was first celebrated in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg on March 2, 1913. On that day, the government-approved "Scientific Morning on Women's Issues" was held, with issues of motherhood, inflation, and women's voting rights on the agenda. The event was attended by one and a half thousand people.
In the revolutionary year of 1917, the current government did not allow the women of St. Petersburg to celebrate the international women's holiday. Attempts to join the women of other countries ended in clashes that turned into a demonstration and into the February revolution. In 1921, at a meeting of the 2nd Communist Women's Conference, it was decided to coincide with the celebration of March 8 in memory of this demonstration, which unwittingly became a harbinger of the February revolution.
In the new Soviet state, Women's Day immediately received the status of a holiday, but continued to be a working day. The workers of Soviet enterprises gradually received equal rights with men to the opportunity to work, and to legal rest, and to receive education, and to govern the state. Freed from oppression, Soviet women morally supported their friends from the capitalist countries at rallies and meetings.
On a holiday, Soviet ladies were not given flowers or gifts, but they used to be released from work, awarded diplomas, thanks and prizes. There is evidence that in some stores, female employees were pleased with pleasant discounts. True, the discounts were not on perfumes and cosmetics, but on galoshes - shoes that were relevant in those days.
International Women's Day was declared an official holiday in the Soviet Union in May 1965. Since 1966, March 8 has been a public holiday. Gradually, Women's Day lost its original political overtones and violent connotations of feminism. Also in Soviet times there was a good tradition to give ladies flowers, sweets, cards and gifts.
In Russia, Women's Day is officially included in the list public holidays RF in 2002. Under the new conditions, it gradually became a day of admiration for women, mothers, and wives. On March 8, men are especially gallant and courageous. They gladly take on women's duties and free the fairer sex from homework and everyday affairs.
At the beginning of spring, on March 8, a wonderful spring holiday International Women's Day or World Women's Day. On this day, the holiday of Ukraine is also celebrated - the Day of the Land Surveyor.
International holiday - Women's Day
This holiday is celebrated by all women, during this holiday the achievements of women in the economic, political and social fields are remembered.
In our time, the celebration of Women's Day does not aim to promote equality, this day is simply considered a beautiful day of spring and female beauty, spiritual wisdom and tenderness.
Women's Day on March 8 is celebrated by the entire United Nations, and in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Armenia this day is also a national holiday.
The leader of the women's group from the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Clara Zetkin, in 1910, at the 2nd International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen, put forward the idea of celebrating International Women's Day.
Clara Zetkin suggested that in order to fight for women's rights, Women's Day should be celebrated in every country on the same day every year.
official holiday"International Women's Day" became in 1975 by decision of the UN.
Today, International Women's Day is primarily a holiday of spring and attention to women. On this day, representatives of the strong half of humanity delight their relatives and beloved women with gifts and care.
Holiday of Ukraine - Land Surveyor's Day
Land Surveyor's Day or Land Surveyor's Day is Ukrainian professional holiday, which has been celebrated annually since 2000 every second Saturday in March. The time for celebrating this day was established by the Decree of the President of Ukraine on December 11, 1999 "On the Day of the Land Surveyor". This year, the Land Surveyor's Day celebration fell on March 8th. The land management of Ukraine ensures the protection of land resources, creates a favorable ecological environment and forms a rational system of land use.
Unusual holidays
Spring Wings Day
Today unusual holiday- Day of the wings of spring. On the wings of a warm wind, spring comes to us.
How to celebrate this holiday? Yes, very simple.
Spring has come, just enjoy the first warmth and clear sun. Can you on festive table On March 8, prepare a spring dish - larks or "wings of spring".
Larks Ingredients:
500 g flour, 1/2 cup milk, 1 sachet (7 g) dry yeast (or 40 g yeast), 80 g butter, 2 yolks, 1 egg, 2 tbsp. sugar, salt, beaten egg with a teaspoon of sugar (for greasing pastries), a handful of raisins for decoration
Cooking method:
Prepare the dough, add the softened butter, hard, egg and the remaining flour, knead the dough, let the dough rise in a warm place for an hour, then knead the dough with your hands and let it stand for another half an hour or an hour.
Divide the finished dough into 10 equal balls, roll each ball into a bundle 15 cm long and tie each bundle with a knot, give one end the shape of a bird's head, sculpting a beak with your fingers, flatten the other end of the bundle and seat the "bird" of the lark on a baking sheet. Let the dough sit for another 25-30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Brush the surface of the pastry with beaten egg. Bake the larks until golden color 15-20 minutes.
Holiday according to the folk calendar
Polikarpov day
On this day, the people honored the memory of St. Polycarp, who was a disciple of the Apostle John and who later became the Bishop of Smyrna. Polycarp was often called "the leader of Asia in Christianity".
On March 8, on Polikarpov Day, unmarried girls in Russia tidied up their dresses and were sad, because if the girl did not have time to get married before Shrovetide, then they were already waiting for the end of spring. There was such a saying among the people: "Clean up, girl, chests, close the outfits."
The girls, of course, did not waste time in vain anyway, and after this holiday they tried to attract suitors. To do this, they used different rituals.
On Polikarpov’s day, the girls waited until the young month rose in the sky, and then, when they saw him, they spun on the heel of their right foot and said: “Young month, wind around me suitors, as I wind around you.” Unnoticed by everyone, the girls threw rubbish from the street into the house, while saying: “I drive into my hut not thieves, but good fellows. Come to me suitors from other people's yards.
They said about the magpies on Polycarp: “The magpie in the forest began to nest”, “It's time for the magpies to get out into the forest, and the black grouse to sing.”
Name day March 8 Alexander, Alexei, Ivan, Clement, Kuzma, Mikhail, Moses, Nicholas, Polycarp, Sergei, Fedor.
March 7th in history
1965 - International Women's Day March 8 became a non-working day.
1968 - The Soviet diesel submarine K-129 sank in the Pacific Ocean during a combat patrol. According to various sources, from 98 to 105 sailors died.
1969 - Egypt broke the truce with Israel.
1975 - The Soviet submarine PL-574 with nuclear missiles sank in the Pacific Ocean.
1976 - The largest known stone meteorite weighing 1774 kg fell into China.
1982 - P. Todorovsky's film "Beloved Woman of the Mechanic Gavrilov" with L. Gurchenko in the title role was released.
1983 - Reagan at the national convention of evangelicals called the Soviet Union the center of evil in modern world, a genuine "evil empire", claiming that peace can only be achieved through force.
1984 - P.L. died. Kapitsa, Soviet physicist, academician, twice Hero of Socialist Labor.
1988 - The Ovechkin family from Irkutsk hijacks a plane and tries to escape from the USSR, the storming of the plane leads to casualties.
1992 - Sergey Vladimirovich Obraztsov (b. 1901), Russian Soviet director, actor, writer, artist, head of the Central Puppet Theater died.
International Women's Day (or UN International Day for Women's Rights and International Peace) is celebrated on March 8.
In a number of countries, International Women's Day on March 8 is a national holiday: in China, North Korea, Angola, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia and Uganda.
After the collapse of the USSR, some republics of the former Soviet Union continue to celebrate March 8, some hastened to get rid of the Soviet legacy. In Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Abkhazia, March 8 is still celebrated as International Women's Day.
In Tajikistan, at the initiative of the country's president, since 2009, the holiday has become known as Mother's Day. This day in Tajikistan remained non-working.
In Turkmenistan, International Women's Day was not celebrated until 2008 - the women's holiday was moved to March 21 (the day of the vernal equinox), connected with Navruz - the national holiday of spring, and was called national holiday spring and women. In January 2008, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov amended the Labor Code and
About the history of the holiday on March 8, why exactly March 8 became Women's Day, when and how it was first celebrated March 8. This is a story about the holiday of March 8 for adults and children. Teachers can use the materials in this article when developing holiday class hours and scenarios dedicated to March 8.
Today, almost the entire planet celebrates March 8 as a day of worship for a real woman, her beauty, wisdom and femininity, who save the world.
From the history of the holiday on March 8
This beloved holiday of March 8 goes back to the traditions ancient rome 1st century BC. It was believed that the goddess Juno, wife of the great Jupiter, was endowed with great power and had great opportunities. She had many names: Juno-Calendariya, Juno-Moneta. .. She gave people good weather, harvest, good luck in business and opened every month of the year. But most of all, the Romans bowed before Juno - Lucius (“bright”), patronizing women in general, and especially during childbirth. She was revered in every home, she was brought gifts upon marriage and at the birth of a child.
The most joyful for the female half of Rome was the holiday of March 1, dedicated to this goddess and called the Matrons. Then the whole city changed. Festively dressed women walked with wreaths of flowers in their hands to the temple of Juno Lucius. They prayed, brought flowers as a gift and asked their patroness for happiness in the family. It was a holiday not only for respectable Roman women, but also for slaves, whose work on this day was performed by male slaves. On March 1, men gave generous gifts to their wives, relatives and girlfriends, did not bypass the attention of maids and slaves ...
In the modern world, Women's Day is celebrated on March 8th. The history of this holiday began in the 19th century, and it was timed to coincide with the day of the struggle for women's rights. It was on March 8, 1857 that a demonstration of workers of clothing and shoe factories took place in New York. Then they demanded that they be given a ten-hour day, acceptable working conditions and equal pay with men. Before that, women worked 16 hours a day and received mere pennies for this. After March 8, 1857, women's unions began to appear, and for the first time women were given the right to vote. But only in 1910, at the International Women's Conference of Socialists in Copenhagen, Clara Zetkin was asked to celebrate World Women's Day on March 8th. It was a kind of call to women all over the world to join the struggle for independence and equality; and they responded by joining the struggle for the right to work, respect for their dignity, for peace on earth. For the first time this holiday was celebrated in 1911, but only on March 19, in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Then more than a million men and women took to the streets of these countries, and the demonstration was held under the slogan: "Elective rights of workers - to join forces in the struggle for socialism." In Russia, International Women's Day was first celebrated in 1913 in St. Petersburg. Its organizers called for economic and political equality for women. One of the most powerful performances of women took place in Petrograd on March 7, 1917. And in 1976, International Women's Day was officially recognized by the UN.
Today, March 8, is a holiday of spring and light, a tribute to the traditional role of a woman as a wife, mother, friend.
Who was the founder of the holidays on March 8: Clara Zetkin or Esther?
Many may have a question: was Clara Zetkin the only ancestor of March 8? Historians also believe that the celebration of this celebration is connected with the legend of Esther. Many centuries ago, she saved her people from a terrible death. Therefore, the most cheerful holiday of the Jewish people, the holiday of Purim, is dedicated to her. It is celebrated almost at the same time as International Women's Day: at the end of winter - beginning of spring, on March 4th.
Once, in 480 BC, all the Jews captured by the Babylonians gained freedom and could freely return to Jerusalem. However, there were practically no people who wanted to leave Babylon, where the Jews spent almost their entire lives. Hundreds of thousands of Jews remained in the Persian Empire, and not at all as a labor force. Many of them managed to get a very good job and earn a good living.
Over time, the Jews took root in Babylon so much that even the indigenous people no longer understood who conquered whom: the Persians of Jerusalem or the Jews of Babylon. Then one of the ministers of the powerful ruler of Xerxes - Haman - came to the king and told him that the Jews had flooded their state. Xerxes decided to exterminate all the Jews.
About the terrible plan of Xerxes, his wife Esther accidentally found out, who hid her ethnic origin from her husband (she was Jewish). Clever Esther did not beg the king for mercy, but decided to use Xerxes' love for herself. When the king was under the influence of her spell, she took from him a promise to exterminate all the enemies of her people. Xerxes agreed to everything, and only some time later he discovered that he had promised his beloved wife to destroy all the enemies of the Jews, but it was no longer possible to retreat ...
And on Adar 13 (the month of the Jewish calendar: approximately the end of February - the beginning of March), a royal decree regarding pogroms is distributed throughout the Persian Empire. But it was radically different from what was originally intended to be created: this decree of Xerxes allowed Esther and her cousin and tutor Mordecai to compose.
“And the royal scribes were called, and everything was written as Mordecai ordered to the rulers of one hundred and twenty-seven regions on behalf of the king - that the king allows the Jews who are in every city to gather and stand in defense of their lives, to destroy, to kill and destroy all the mighty in the people and in the region that are at enmity with them, children and wives, and plunder their possessions ”(Est 8, 8-11). And for two days, “all the princes in the regions, both the satraps and the executors of the king’s affairs, supported the Jews. And the Jews beat all their enemies, and destroyed them, and dealt with the enemies according to their own will" (Est 9, 3-5).
Minister Haman, who gave Xerxes the idea of exterminating the Jews, was executed by hanging along with his entire family. During this struggle, about 75 thousand Persians were destroyed. The Persian Empire was practically destroyed. The day of this significant victory for the Jews is honored and celebrated to this day.
Among the greatest sages, “there is even an opinion that when all the books of the prophets and hagiographers are forgotten, the book of Esther will still not be forgotten, and the Purim holiday will not cease to be observed.”
Perhaps this legend was true, and Esther really saved her people. And in gratitude for such a feat, the Jews honor the savior at the present time, celebrating Purim. And everyone understands that such a legend about the celebration world day women also have a right to exist.
Last year the International women's day just turned 100 years old. At the International Conference of Socialist Women, held in Copenhagen in August 1910, at the suggestion of Clara Zetkin, it was decided to define a special day in the year dedicated to the struggle of women for their rights. The following year, on March 19, mass demonstrations took place in Germany, Austria, Denmark and Switzerland, in which more than a million people took part. This is how the story of March 8 began, originally " international day solidarity of women in the struggle for economic, social and political equality”.
In 1912, mass demonstrations in defense of women's rights took place on May 12, in 1913 - in different days Martha. And only since 1914 was the date of March 8 finally fixed, most likely for the reason that it was Sunday. In the same year, the day of struggle for the rights of women was first celebrated in the then tsarist Russia. With the outbreak of the First World War, the struggle for the cessation of hostilities was added to the demands for the expansion of women's civil liberties. The history of the emergence of the March 8 holiday was later tied to the events of 03/08/1910, when for the first time in New York there were demonstrations of workers in clothing and shoe factories demanding higher wages, better working conditions and a shorter working day.
Having come to power, the Russian Bolsheviks recognized March 8 as the official date. There was no talk of spring, flowers and femininity: the emphasis was placed exclusively on the class struggle and the involvement of women in the idea of socialist construction. Thus began a new round in the history of the day on March 8 - now this holiday has spread in the countries of the socialist camp, and in Western Europe it has been safely forgotten. An important milestone in the history of the March 8 holiday was 1965, when it was declared a day off in the USSR.
In 1977, the UN adopted Resolution No. 32/142, which secured the status of an international women's day. True, in most states where it is still celebrated (Laos, Nepal, Mongolia, North Korea, China, Uganda, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso, Congo, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Poland, Italy), this is the International Day struggle for women's rights and international peace, that is, an event of political and social significance. 
In the countries of the post-Soviet camp, despite the history of the origin of March 8, there has been no talk of any “struggle” for a long time. Congratulations, flowers and gifts are due to all women - mothers, wives, sisters, girlfriends, employees, toddlers and retired grandmothers. It was abandoned only in Turkmenistan, Latvia and Estonia. In other states, there is no such holiday. Perhaps because Mother's Day is held in high esteem there, which in most countries is celebrated on the second Sunday of May (in Russia - on last sunday November).
A very curious fact from the national history of the March 8 holiday. The fact is that the famous February Revolution of 1917, which laid the foundation for the October Revolution, began in Petrograd with a mass rally of women protesting against the war. Events grew like a snowball, and soon a general strike began, an armed uprising, Nicholas II abdicated the throne. What happened next is well known.
The bitterness of humor is that February 23, according to the old style, is March 8, according to the new one. So, the next day of March 8 marked the beginning of the history of the future USSR. But Defender of the Fatherland Day is traditionally timed to coincide with other events: February 23, 1918, the beginning of the formation of the Red Army.
Did you know that a special women's day existed in the Roman Empire? Freely born married Roman women (matrons) dressed in the best outfits, decorated their heads and clothes with flowers and visited the temples of the goddess Vesta. On this day, husbands gave them expensive gifts and honors. Even slaves received souvenirs from their masters and were released from work. Hardly there 
a direct connection in the history of the origin of the holiday on March 8 with the ancient Roman women's day, but our modern version is very similar in spirit to it.
The Jews have their own holiday - Purim, which lunar calendar falls annually on a different day in March. This is the day of the female warrior, the brave and wise Queen Esther, who by cunning saved the Jews from destruction in 480 BC, however, at the cost of the lives of tens of thousands of Persians. Some have tried to directly connect Purim with the history of the origin of the March 8 holiday. But, contrary to speculation, Clara Zetkin was not a Jew (although her husband Osip was a Jew), and it would hardly have occurred to her to tie the day of the struggle of European feminists to a Jewish religious holiday.
