Unity Day

When it falls

4 November every year, a public holiday in Russia since 2005.

The Phala almanac gives the exact day for your own city; the lunar and solar rules above are what it computes from.

The story

In 1612, during the Time of Troubles, the volunteer army of the merchant Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky drove the Polish garrison out of the Moscow Kremlin, ending the Polish occupation and opening the way to the election of the first Romanov tsar the next year. The Orthodox Church keeps the same day for the icon of Our Lady of Kazan, carried by the army.

The holiday was created in 2004 to replace the 7 November anniversary of the October Revolution, and the statue of Minin and Pozharsky on Red Square is where the President lays flowers.

How the day is kept

• Flowers laid at the Minin and Pozharsky monument on Red Square by the President and the heads of the religious communities.
• Processions and concerts in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod, Minin's city; the procession of the Kazan icon.
• A day off; museums open free in many cities for the Night of the Arts on the eve.

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