Holidays on 11th November

Angola Independence Day

This date celebrates the country’s independence from Portugal in 1975. The region was first visited by Portuguese explorer Diogo Cao in 1484. Over the following centuries, the Portuguese established settlements and trading posts along the Angolan coast. It was not until the 20th century that Portuguese control extended to the interior region of Angola. The first movement towards independence began in the 1950s with the creation of political groups wanting self-determination for Angola. The Portuguese refused at the time to acknowledge independence, and this led to the Angolan War of Independence in 1961. The war only came to an end when a military coup in Portugal in April 1974 overthrew the regime of Estado Novo. The new government then called a cease-fire and stopped all military action in the African colonies, declaring its intention to grant their independence. The three main guerrilla groups formed a traditional government in January 1975, but fighting soon broke out. With support from Cuba, the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola took control of the country’s capital Luanda, and declared independence on 11th November 1975. It is celebrated with festivals, parades and formal ceremonies.

Poland Independence Day

This day commemorates the anniversary of the restoration of Poland’s sovereignty as the Second Polish Republic in 1918 from the German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires. Following the partitions in the late 18th century, Poland ceased to exist for 123 years until the end of the First World War. It was a day of military ceremony since 1920, and the holiday was constituted in 1937. After World War Two, the communist authorities of the People’s Republic removed Independence Day from the calendar, although it was celebrated informally. This caused issues in the 1980s when they were brutally dispersed by communist militarised police forces, with many arrested. When it emerged by communism in 1989, the original holiday was restored.

A military parade is held on television formed of two battalions, two composed of armed forces personnel and the other made up of personnel of the civil service.

Saint Martins Day

This is the funeral day of Saint Martin of Tours. The feast was widely seen as the preferred time for the butchering of “Martinmas beef” from prime, fattened cattle. geese, other livestock and the ending of the the toil of autumn wheat seeding. Hiring fair were more abundant that usual, where farm labourers could choose, or others had, to seek new posts. Saint Martin of Tours himself was a Roman soldier who was baptised as an adult and became a bishop in a French town. The most notable of his saintly acts was he had cut his cloak in half to share with a beggar during a snowstorm, to save him from the cold as then that night, he dreamt of Jesus, wearing the half-cloak and saying to the angels “here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is now baptised; he has clothed me” He died on 8th November 397, and was buried three days later.