Holidays
When did Kogalniceanu proclaim Romania's independence from the Ottoman Empire?
Romania
Since 2013, there are 14 non-working holidays. In Romanian language, the consecrate Christian holidays have untranslatable correspondents, such as "Rusalii" (Pentecost), "Dragobete" (Valentine's Day) and "Florii" (Palm Sunday). Nowadays, the National Day of Romania, a legal non-working holiday, is December the 1st, celebrated by military marches and manifestations across the country. It commemorates the 1918 assembly of the delegates of all ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia, when the Union of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania was declared upon. During the communist regime, the national day was August the 23rd, marking the 1944 royal coup d'état by King Michael I when he decided about the dismissal and arrest of general Ion Antonescu, Romanian Prime Minister and Leader of the State. On the same day he ordered the immediate cessation of Romania's collaboration with the Axis Powers, the beginning of negotiations for an armistice with the Allies and a military cooperation with the Soviet Union. A certain segment of Romanians, who support the reinstatement of the monarchy, prefers the date of May 10 to be the National Day, as it used to be between 1866–1947. On May 9, 1877, prime minister Kogălniceanu proclaimed the Principality of Romania's independence from the Ottoman Empire, a status recognized by the European powers in the Treaty of Berlin in 1878.