Holidays Calendar for April 8, 2023
The Japanese annually celebrate Hana Matsuri, or the Flower Festival, on April 8. This festival is devoted to Buddha's Birthday.
Nuzul Al-Qur’an is an Islamic holiday that commemorates the revealing of the first verses of the Qur’an to Muhammad the Prophet. It is celebrated on the 17th day of the month of Ramadan. Nuzul Al-Qur’an is a public holiday in Brunei and some Malaysian states and federal territories.
Religious Holidays →
Australia,
Belize,
Chile,
Fiji,
El Salvador,
Guatemala,
Honduras,
Hong Kong,
Macau,
Malawi,
Nicaragua,
Panama,
Papua New Guinea,
Seychelles,
Samoa,
Philippines,
Solomon Islands,
Sudan,
South Sudan,
Tuvalu,
Zambia,
Zimbabwe
Holy Saturday in Western Christianity
Holy Saturday, also known as Holy and Great Saturday, the Great Sabbath, Joyous Saturday, Black Saturday, or Easter Even, is the day after Good Friday and before Easter. It commemorates the day when Jesus Christ’s body lay in the tomb and when Christ’s soul triumphantly descended into the underworld.
April 8 the Roma around the world celebrate International Day of the Roma. This holiday was established in 1990.
International Pageant Day has been observed every April 8 since 2018. This holiday celebrates beauty pageants, as well as all women around the world who compete in them to win the coveted title and crown.
International Feng Shui Awareness Day is observed annually on April 8. It was created to educate the general public about the ancient Chinese traditional practice of feng shui and its modern applications.
April 8 is annual celebration of Day of Military Commissariat Employees in the Russian Federation and in the Republic of Belarus.
Employees of the Drug Control Authority of the Kyrgyz Republic observe their professional holiday, Drug Control Authority Workers' Day, on April 8. This is the holiday for those people who fight against the production and distribution of drugs in the country.
The anniversary of the Ministry of Defense in Thailand is celebrated on April 8. It was officially established by the government of Thailand on June 13, 1980, and the first celebration was held on April 8, 1981.
Economist Day is one of the official professional holidays observed in the Republic of Tajikistan. It is celebrated annually on April 8.
National Plitvice Lakes Day is a Croatian ecological observance held annually on April 8. It is dedicated to one of the country’s most impressive natural landmarks that was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1979, alongside the historical complex of Split with the Palace of Diocletian and the Old City of Dubrovnik.
National Dog Fighting Awareness Day is observed annually on April 8. It was created to denounce the cruel practice of dog fighting and encourage people across the country to take action against illegal dog fighting rings.
Russian Animation Day is an annual holiday celebrated on April 8. It commemorates the screening of the first Russian animated film, which took place in 1912.
The birthday of Sri Guru Nabha Dass Ji is one of the holidays celebrated in the Indian state of Punjab. It commemorates a Hindu saint and theologian who is best known as the author of the sacred poem titled the Bhaktamal.
Empanada is a Spanish pastry that has become popular in many cuisines around the world. Today, on April 8, we celebrate National Empanada Day, so let yourself indulge in delicious empanadas. You can even host an empanada cooking and tasting party because everything tastes better when shared with friends!
Draw a Bird Day is a special movement, that was born in Great Britain during the 1940s. This movement spread to the other countries and it became very popular.
Festivals on April 8, 2023
- Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California in Irwindale, USA
- Scarborough Renaissance Festival in Waxahachie, USA
- Texas VegFest in Austin, USA
- Colisium International Music Forum in Minsk, Belarus
- Star Wars Celebration in London, United Kingdom
- Lucidity Festival in Santa Barbara, USA
- New York International Auto Show in New York, USA
- International Istanbul Film Festival in Istanbul, Turkey
- Wairarapa Balloon Festival in Masterton, New Zealand
- Sydney Royal Easter Show in Sydney, Australia
- National Folk Festival (Australia) in Canberra, Australia
- Splashy Fen in Underberg, South Africa
- Artifact Small Format Film Festival in Calgary, Canada
- Blazing Swan in Kulin, Australia
- Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Mount Vernon, USA
This Day in History
- 2024 Died: Peter Higgs, British theoretical physicist, professor at the University of Edinburgh, and Nobel laureate in Physics for his work on the mass of subatomic particles. The Higgs boson was named after him.
- 2024 A total solar eclipse took place at the Moon's ascending node, visible across North America and dubbed the Great North American Eclipse (also Great American Total Solar Eclipse and Great American Eclipse) by some media.
- 2013 Died: Margaret Thatcher, English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990.
- 2010 Died: Malcolm McLaren, English singer-songwriter and fashion designer. He is best remembered as the manager of Sex Pistols.
- 2005 Pope John Paul II was buried, six days after his death. Over 4 million people attended the funeral.
- 1984 Died: Pyotr Kapitsa, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate for basic inventions and discoveries in the area of low-temperature physics.
- 1981 Born: Taylor Kitsch, Canadian model and actor, best known for role as Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and as Tim Riggins in the NBC TV series Friday Night Lights.
- 1980 Born: Katee Sackhoff, American actress. She is known for her roles in the television series Battlestar Galactica, Another Life, Longmire, and The Mandalorian.
- 1974 Born: Nnedi Okorafor, Nigerian American writer of science fiction and fantasy best known for her Binti Series. She has also written for comics and film.
- 1973 Born: Emma Caulfield, American actress known for her roles as Anya on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sarah Proctor on WandaVision and its spin-off Agatha.
- 1973 Died: Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor, one of the greatest and most influent artists of the 20th century. His most famous works are The Young Ladies of Avignon and Guernica.
- 1970 Born: JR Bourne, Canadian actor best known for portraying CIA Agent Edwards on Fringe, Christ Argent on Teen Wolf, and Kenny Ryan on Revenge.
- 1968 Died: Barbara Jane Harrison, English flight attendant, recipient of the George Cross for heroism in helping passengers to escape the burning plane BOAC Flight 712.
- 1966 Born: Robin Wright, American actress. She rose to prominence in the 1980s for her roles as Kelly Capwell in Santa Barbara and Princess Buttercup in The Princess Bride.
- 1961 238 people were killed in a large explosion on board of the MV Dara, a Dubai based passenger liner, in Persian Gulf.
- 1960 The Netherlands and West Germany singed an agreement to negotiate the return of German land annexed by the Dutch in return for 280 million German marks.
- 1958 Died: Ethel Turner, Australian novelist and children's book author. Her famous book Seven Little Australians is considered as a classic of Australian children's literature.
- 1954 37 people died when a Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair Harvard collided with a Trans-Canada Airlines Canadair North Star over Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
- 1950 India and Pakistan signed the Liaquat-Nehru Pact that allowed refugees to return unmolested to dispose of their property, abducted women and property were to be returned, forced conversions were unrecognized, and minority rights were confirmed.
- 1941 Born: Vivienne Westwood, English fashion designer and businesswoman. She is largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.
- 1938 Born: Kofi Annan, Ghanaian diplomat, the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, and one of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world.
- 1936 Died: Róbert Bárány, Austrian physician, Nobel Prize laureate for his work on the physiology and pathology of the vestibular apparatus.
- 1931 Died: Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish poet, Nobel Prize laureate for his highly symbolic poetry masquerading as regionalism. Karlfeldt is the only posthumous winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
- 1919 Born: John Fante, American author, best known for his work Ask the Dust. Fante is known as on the writers who portrayed the tough times faced by many writers in Los Angeles.
- 1912 Born: Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater and actress, a three-times Olympic Champion, a ten-time World Champion (from 1927 to 1936) and a six-time European Champion.
- 1911 Born: Melvin Calvin, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate for the discovery Calvin cycle that showed that sunlight acts on the chlorophyll in a plant to fuel the manufacturing of organic compounds, rather than on carbon dioxide, as it was previously believed.
- 1911 Superconductivity, a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance and expulsion of magnetic fields, was discovered by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes.
- 1904 Born: John Hicks, English economist, Nobel Prize laureate for his pioneering contributions to general equilibrium theory and welfare theory.
- 1904 Longacre Square in New York City was renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
- 1904 The Entente cordiale was signed by the French Third Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- 1886 The first Irish Home Rule Bill was introduced by William Ewart Gladstone into the British House of Commons.
- 1861 Died: Elisha Otis, American businessman, founder of the Otis Elevator Company. One of his greatest inventions was a safety device that prevents elevators from falling if the hoisting cable fails.
- 1848 Died: Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer. Donizetti was one of the leading Italian composers of the bel canto opera style during first half of the 19th century.
- 1820 The Venus de Milo, an ancient Greek statue and one of the most famous works of ancient Greece, was discovered on the Aegean island of Melos.
- 1818 Born: August Wilhelm von Hofmann, German chemist. He made considerable contributions to organic chemistry and discovered formaldehyde, hydrazobenzene, isonitriles, and allyl alcohol.
- 1692 Born: Giuseppe Tartini, Italian violinist and composer, best remembered for the Devil's Trill Sonata, a solo violin sonata notable for its technically difficult passages.