Children's Day: history and meaning of the holiday

 Tomorrow, June 1, all over the world will celebrate Children's Day. Adults on this day do their best to please the kids. Someone takes a day off and takes their child to the zoo, someone goes out for a barbecue or gives gifts. For children, this day is doubly happy and positive, because it coincides with the first day of summer and the beginning of the longest vacation. However, do not forget about the significance of the holiday. Its history is almost 100 years old, and the main idea is to draw the attention of adults to the rights of children and remind how often they are violated. Not so long ago, a new holiday, World Parents Day, was timed to coincide with Children's Day. Both of these dates are a good reason to spend tomorrow with your family.

Children's Day: the history of the holiday

In the big world of adults, little attention has always been paid to the problems of children. The economy, military conflicts and financial crises have firmly pushed "childish" issues into the background. Only in 1924 was the Declaration of the Rights of the Child adopted in Geneva. It consisted of five basic principles against child labor, child slavery, child trafficking and prostitution of minors. The following year, on June 1, an international conference was held in Geneva, where experts at the world level discussed how to improve the protection of the rights of the child. This date was subsequently decided to be assigned to Children's Day.

It is believed that the first to celebrate this day was proposed by the Consul General of China to the United States. In the same year 1925, he organized a charity festival "Duan-wu-tsze" for orphans in San Francisco and drew the attention of society to the inhuman conditions of life in orphanages. True, then the initiative was “safely” forgotten under the onslaught of the economic crisis and the events of World War II. Already in the post-war period, in 1949, the International Women's Congress was held in Paris. Its participants tried to solve the problem of orphans, of whom after the war there were a myriad of them all over the world. At the same time, women decided to establish Children's Day, which will annually remind people of how fragile children's rights are in this world, and how easy it is to violate them.

The first Children's Day was held on June 1, 1950. Then 51 states joined the celebration. Since then and to this day, this holiday has been celebrated all over the world as a sign that children's rights should be the top priority of intelligent humanity. This day has its own symbolic flag: it is a green canvas with a globe in the middle. Five little people of different colors are firmly standing on the globe - this is a sign that all people are one in their diversity.

Parents' Day: the history of the holiday

Unlike Children's Day, the World parents day began to be noted relatively recently. It was only established by the United Nations in 2012. The essence of this date is to remind people of the importance and value of each family, as well as the main role of parents in raising children. So far, there are not many traditions of this holiday, and all of them are strongly associated with Children's Day. This is the best time to meet with relatives, see grandparents, gather a large and friendly family in nature or at a festive table. It is interesting that in many countries of the world, in addition to the world holiday, they also have their own Parents' Day. In the United States, it is celebrated on the last Sunday of July, in South Korea on May 8, and in India on July 24. And in Ukraine there is a separate Mother's Day (second Sunday in May) and Father's Day (third Sunday in June).

You will also be interested to read:

Attention, competition: Win a child safety training for Children's Day

For Children's Day: 15 Important Things Only Children Can Teach Adults

Children's Day: beautiful congratulations in poetry and prose