Cape Town

Freedom Day exists to commemorate the first non-racial, post-apartheid elections in South Africa, held on this date in 1994.

This holiday has its origins in the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago in 1886, when Chicago police fired on workers holding a general strike for the eight hour work day.

The day came to possess a great deal of local significance, as the pre-1994 government, for fairly obvious reasons, refused to celebrate it. The demand for the day’s observance grew into a rallying point for trade unions and workers, and was important as an annual call to build and mobilize forces against the racial policies of the Apartheid government.

Youth Day is intended to commemorate the Soweto Riots of 1976, in which thousands of students protested the government order for instruction in black schools to be carried out in Afrikaans, an edict that would have made education virtually impossible. Anywhere from 200 to 600 protesters are believed to have been killed as riot police rained gunfire on their ranks.

On this day in 1956, 20 000 women, primarily African, marched on the Union buildings in Pretoria to leave bundles of petitions (amounting to over 100 000 in number) at the door of Prime Minister J.G. Strydom’s office. The march was to protest the institution of the pass laws, which required Africans to carry special identification detailing the areas in which they were allowed to travel under the Group Areas Act.

Heritage Day, true to its name, is meant to celebrate the history of the country as a whole. The occasion calls for various festivals and events around the country, including re-enactments of several battles and historical events. Despite its cosmopolitan image, however, the day is dated from one of several possible dates in 1828 marking the death of Shaka Zulu, the most influential leader of the Zulu Kingdom prior to the arrival of the British Empire in South Africa.

The Day of Reconciliation has been celebrated annually since 1994, and is intended to symbolize the possibility for reconciliation between South Africa’s diverse racial groups, particularly between white Afrikaners and black Africans.

On the one hand, the day commemorates the Day of the Vow, an Afrikaans religious holiday celebrating the victory of the Afrikaners over the Zulus in the 1838 Battle of Blood River.

On the other, it marks the anniversary of the foundation, circa 1961, of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress responsible for the majority of the guerrilla activities waged against the Apartheid government.

Formerly celebrated as the British Boxing Day, December 26 has been renamed The Day of Goodwill in South Africa. Conceptually, however, it’s virtually identical, being intended to promote the continuation of the spirit of charity and selfless giving beyond the Christmas season.