August 1 - Holidays and Observances

Holidays and Observances

• Armed Forces Day (Lebanon)
• Armed Forces Day or Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Liberation Army (People's Republic of China)
• Christian Feast Day:
  • Abgar V of Edessa (Syrian Church)
  • Alphonsus Maria de Liguori
  • Æthelwold of Winchester
  • Eusebius of Vercelli
  • Exuperius of Bayeux
  • Felix of Girona
  • Peter Apostle in Chains
  • August 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• Celebration of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 which ended the slavery in the British Empire, generally celebrated as a part of Carnival, as the Caribbean Carnival takes place at this time (British West Indies):
  • Earliest day on which Caribana celebration can fall, celebrated on the first Weekend of August. (Toronto)
  • Earliest day on which Emancipation Day can fall, celebrated on the first Monday of August. (Anguilla, the Bahamas, British Virgin Islands)
  • Emancipation Day (Barbados, Bermuda, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago)

• Earliest day on which Civic Holiday can fall; celebrated on the first Monday of August. (Canada)
• Earliest day on which Commerce Day, or Frídagur verslunarmanna, can fall; celebrated on the first Monday of August. (Iceland)
• Earliest day on which International Friendship Day can fall, celebrated on the first Sunday of August.
• Feast of Kamál (Perfection); First day of the eighth month of the Bahá'í calendar. (Bahá'í Faith)
• Liberation of Haile Selassie I from slavery. (Rastafari movement)
• National Day, celebrates the independence of Benin from France in 1960.
• National Day, commemorates Switzerland becoming a single unit in 1291.
• The beginning of autumn observances in the Northern hemisphere and spring observances in the Southern hemisphere (Neopagan Wheel of the Year):
  • Imbolc or Brighid's Day (Southern hemisphere)
  • Lughnasadh (Northern hemisphere)
  • Lammas (Northern hemisphere)
• Procession of the Cross and the beginning of Dormition Fast (Eastern Orthodoxy)
• Statehood Day (Colorado)
• The first day of Carnaval del Pueblo (Burgess Park, London)
• Yorkshire Day (Yorkshire, England)