| Maslenitsa - Monday February 12, 2018 Culture : Maslenitsa (also known as Butter Week, Pancake week, or Cheesefare Week) has its origins in both pagan and Christian traditions. In Slavic mythology, Maslenitsa is a sun festival, celebrating the imminent end of the winter. corresponds to the Western Christian Carnival.
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| Valentine's Day - Thursday February 14, 2019 cards/flowers : Introduced by Pope Gelasus in 498, perhaps in response to a local Roman tradition of lovers writing their names on an urn in February
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| Municipal election - Sunday February 18, 2018 Special Events :
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| Father of Independence Day - Saturday February 23, 2019 Culture : A day that pays tribute to servicemen past and present, and recognises all men too. [www.belarus.by]
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| WORKING DAY - Saturday March 3, 2018 Secular holiday :
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| Womens' Day - Thursday March 8, 2018 Secular holiday : The idea of an international women's day was first put forward at the turn of the 20th century amid rapid world industrialization and economic expansion that led to protests over working conditions. Women from clothing and textile factories staged one such protest on 8 March 1857 in New York City. The garment workers were protesting what they saw as very poor working conditions and low wages. The protesters were attacked and dispersed by police. These women established their first labor union two years later. Wikipedia
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| Public holiday - Friday March 9, 2018 Secular holiday :
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| Constitution Day - Friday March 15, 2019 Culture : New constitution adopted on March 15, 1994, since been amended in 1996 and 2004.
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| Spring holiday (beginning) - Friday March 23, 2018 School holidays :
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| Passover - Friday March 30, 2018 cards/flowers : Deliverance of the Jewish people from Egypt. The Seder service on the first two evenings recounts the story of the Exodus NOT a public holiday
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| Palm Sunday - Sunday April 1, 2018 Culture :
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| Spring holiday (end) - Monday April 2, 2018 School holidays :
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| Orthodox Easter - Sunday April 8, 2018 Orthodox : Paid holiday
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| WORKING DAY - Saturday April 14, 2018 Secular holiday :
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| Public holiday - Monday April 16, 2018 Secular holiday :
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| All Saints' Day - Tuesday April 17, 2018 Orthodox : The day now honors all saints of the church, even those not known by name. The first All Saints' Day occurred on May 13, 609 (C.E.) when Pope Boniface IV accepted the Pantheon as a gift from the Emperor Phocas. Boniface dedicated it as the Church of Santa Maria Rotonda in honor of the Blessed Virgin and all martyrs. During Pope Gregory III's reign (731-741), the festival was expanded to include all saints and a chapel in St. Peter's church was dedicated accordingly. Pope Gregory IV officially designated the day in 837. banks remain open
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| Chernobyl nuclear incident anniversary (not a bank holiday) - Friday April 26, 2019 Culture : Day of Remembrance of the Chernobyl tragedy
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| WORKING DAY - Saturday April 28, 2018 Secular holiday :
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| Public holiday - Monday April 30, 2018 Secular holiday :
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| Labor Day/May Day - Tuesday May 1, 2018 Secular holiday : Chicago, Saturday May 1st, 1886: 350,000 workers go on strike to call for an 8-hour working day. Industries are paralyzed nationwide. On Monday, as demonstrations go on, the police open fire. On Tuesday, Chicago is again on strike. Following a bomb launched against them, the police shoot again. 12 dead, of which 7 policemen. 8 anarchists will be condemned and executed. In 1889, the Socialist International Movement met in Paris and declared this day international workers' day . The Soviets will follow suit, just as the Nazis. In France, under the Vichy regime (1940-1944), the celebration is renamed Labour Day .
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| Victory Day - Wednesday May 9, 2018 Secular holiday : Marks the capitulation of Nazi forces to the Allies (the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and other principal Allied nations) in Berlin on May 8, 1945. It is celebrated in the successor states to the Soviet Union on May 9, because when the German Instrument of Surrender was signed (in the midnight), it was already May 9 in the USSR and Eastern Europe. http://www.tintdude.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t26067.html
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| Flag Day - Sunday May 13, 2018 Culture : This holiday is dedicated to the main symbols of the country which embody the ideas of national unity and are the major attributes of sovereignty and independence in Belarus. [www.belarus.by]
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| Summer holiday (beginning) - Friday June 1, 2018 School holidays :
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| Kupalle - Thursday June 21, 2018 Culture : The most popular celebration in contemporary Belarus. It is a hedonistic summer celebration of fertility in the name of a female God: Kupala
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| Remembrance Day - Friday June 22, 2018 Culture : Day of Remembrance of the victims of the Great Patriotic War
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| Public holiday - Monday July 2, 2018 Secular holiday :
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| Independence Day - Tuesday July 3, 2018 Secular holiday : Belarus celebrate their independence on July 3, commemorating that date in 1944, when as part of the huge Soviet offensive Operation Bagration the Soviet Republic of Belarus was liberated from German occupation. Post-Soviet Belarus gained their independence on August 25, 1991. Belarussians therefore celebrate their independence on the day when the Soviets liberated them, rather than the day on which they received independence from the Soviet Union. Wikipedia
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| WORKING DAY - Saturday July 7, 2018 Secular holiday :
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| International Festival of Arts Slavonic Bazaar - Thursday July 12, 2018 Culture : Lasts 3 days -
http://www.belarus.by/ in Vitebsk 2015 edition confirmed
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| Parliamentary election - Wednesday August 8, 2018 Special Events :
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