Day of national unity. History of the holiday: some facts

November 4, National Unity Day is a little-known celebration with a long history. But we will try to understand it, relying on historical facts and arguments of reason.

In Russia they always liked to relax and celebrate something. Most of the marked dates wander from year to year, gradually losing their initial meaning, growing in legends, losing their true face. People just used to rest at this time, and the government does not want to go against the masses. So the New Year stayed with us, surviving even Stalin with his "antipopov reforms." On March 8, we congratulate all ladies, and almost no one remembers the "solidarity of working women" and "a march of empty pots" - as it happened with most of our holidays. The history of the Day of National Unity was no exception, but it is interesting with its intriguing plot and ambiguous castling. If other holidays have somehow retained their original appearance, then the day we discussed at times departed from their roots at all. But first things first.

Start

So, the Day of National Unity. The history of the holiday began in the distant 1612, when Minin and Pozharsky were able to unite the people and the army in order to liberate Moscow from the invaders from Poland. It happened 22.10 on the old style (04.11 in a new way). Subsequently, Tsar Alexei Romanov established this date to celebrate annually. And we are happy! So it all started. For three centuries the people of Russia celebrated this day with festivals and entertainments, proud of their strength, power and independence, which was awakened in it without orders and exhortations.

Continuation of a story

What happened next? When the Bolsheviks came, it turned out that they were unhappy with this holiday. But the people celebrated it for several centuries in November! After all the wars, adversities, deprivations take away from the exhausted people a holiday - it was unacceptable. But you can not leave a celebration of the events of tsarist Russia, either. How to be? The date was slightly changed, and on November 7 they began celebrating the anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. The Day of National Unity is over, the holiday's history is over? No!

In 1996, we officially forgot about the revolution, and the date of November 7 was the Day of Accord and Reconciliation. With this formulation, the matter is generally dark. The presidential decree (December 2004) refers to the need to unite and unite the social strata of the population of Russia.

Decoupling

In 2004, the Interreligious Council of Russia put forward the idea of returning not only the original date, but also the wording. The following year, the government signed an order - the Day of National Unity returned to us, the history of the holiday continues ...

What is the attitude of the modern generation to this day? Ambiguous. His history is known to very few people, unfortunately. But young people like to be "united and invincible." The state does a lot to ensure that this holiday has found its traditions and ardent admirers, especially among young people. Concerts, corporate parties, sports events - cities around the country are trying to actively fill this weekend with mass entertainment, folk festivals. This, of course, is good, because in this way agitation for an active and healthy life is conducted, national pride, patriotism, friendship and trust are promoted.

At the same time, many people of the older generation consider this holiday meaningless. For the people, it is a thing of the past, of history. And we even had a day when the siege of Leningrad was lifted, it is not a day off, what can we say about Minin and Pozharsky. People do not understand who to congratulate and what to congratulate, and the government uses the "November habit". It's already a tradition - one day, but in November the people should rest. Although in essence it is simply the date of another (of course, significant) military battle. In this sense, the October Revolution has even more rights to the "red day of the calendar" - after all, the change of social poles, the overthrow of the autocracy.

So how is the Day of National Unity? The history of the holiday is discussed. Some say that the monument on Red Square is enough to remember the feat of the people. Others advocate the revival and preservation of traditions, sincerely believing that Russia needs more national and official significant dates. And the third important thing is a day off, even if it's a day of a worldwide flood. What is most typical for Russia is the "third" majority! Probably, therefore, the biggest percentage of people interviewed correctly named the holiday's wording since 2007 is 23. It is good that it is growing, at the time of the beginning of the polls its value was only 8%.