International Women's Day

When it falls

8 March every year. It is a public holiday in Russia, China (for women, a half day), and about twenty other countries, and a United Nations observance since 1977.

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

The story

The day comes from the socialist women's movement: a Women's Day in New York in 1909, the proposal of an international one by Clara Zetkin at Copenhagen in 1910, and the first on 19 March 1911 in Germany, Austria, Denmark and Switzerland. The date of 8 March was fixed by the women textile workers' strike in Petrograd on that day in 1917 (23 February on the Russian calendar), which began the February Revolution.

In the Soviet Union and its successors it became the day for flowers to every woman, mothers, wives, teachers and colleagues; in the West the United Nations gave it a theme each year and the day is for the unfinished business of equal pay and representation.

How the day is kept

• Flowers, mimosa in Italy and Russia, tulips and roses elsewhere, given to the women of the family and the office.
• Marches and events under the year's UN theme; awards for women in each field; in India the day is a school and college event with speeches and prizes.
• A public holiday in Russia and the former Soviet states, where it is second only to New Year in the gifts exchanged.

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