Day of national mourning
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A national day of mourning is a day or days marked by
mourning Mourning is the expression of an experience that is the consequence of an event in life involving loss, causing grief, occurring as a result of someone's death, specifically someone who was loved although loss from death is not exclusively ...
and memorial activities observed among the majority of a country's populace. They are designated by the national government. Such days include those marking the death or funeral of a renowned individual or individuals from that country or elsewhere or the anniversary of such a death or deaths, the anniversaries of a significant natural or man-made disaster occurring either in the country or another country, wartime commemorations or in memory of the victims of a terrorist attack. Flying a national or military
flag A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design empl ...
of that country at
half-mast Half-mast or half-staff (American English) refers to a flag flying below the summit of a ship mast, a pole on land, or a pole on a building. In many countries this is seen as a symbol of respect, mourning, distress, or, in some cases, a salut ...
is a common symbol.


List

The following are lists for national days of mourning across the world: * Before 2000 * 2000–2019 * 2020–present


Selected list of figures recognized


State officials

* A National Day of Mourning is typically declared for
Presidents of the United States The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a four-year term via the Electoral College. The officeholder leads the executive branch of the federal government and ...
, usually on the day of their funerals. Beginning with John F. Kennedy, these days are also considered federal holidays. There was no official day of mourning for
Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gre ...
. * In the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
, an official mourning period was reserved for the deaths of leaders or former leaders, with
Alexei Rykov Alexei Ivanovich Rykov (25 February 188115 March 1938) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician and statesman, most prominent as premier of Russia and the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1929 and 1924 to 1930 respectively. He was ...
,
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
and
Georgy Malenkov Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov ( – 14 January 1988) was a Soviet politician who briefly succeeded Joseph Stalin as the leader of the Soviet Union. However, at the insistence of the rest of the Presidium, he relinquished control over the p ...
being notable exceptions after Rykov was executed during the
Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...
and the other two were relegated to obscurity. Khrushchev's death was announced only hours before he was buried without full state honors, while Malenkov's death was publicly announced more than 2 weeks after he died. This custom changed in 1968 when a national day of mourning was declared for Soviet cosmonaut
Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space. T ...
, the first human to journey into outer space. In the final years of the Soviet Union, official mourning was declared for 2 disasters: the
1988 Armenian earthquake The 1988 Armenian earthquake, also known as the Spitak earthquake ( hy, Սպիտակի երկրաշարժ, ), occurred on December 7 at with a surface wave magnitude of 6.8 and a maximum MSK intensity of X (''Devastating''). The shock occurre ...
and the Ufa train disaster. *
Presidents of Mexico The Head of State of Mexico is the person who controls the executive power in the country. Under the current constitution, this responsibility lies with the President of the United Mexican States, who is head of the supreme executive power of th ...
, usually on the day of their funerals. These days are usually considered municipal and religious holidays in
Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
and federal holidays in the rest of the republic.
Miguel de la Madrid Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado (; 12 December 1934 – 1 April 2012) was a Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who served as the 59th president of Mexico from 1982 to 1988. Inheriting a severe economic a ...
in 2012 was the most recent.


International days of mourning

A similar but rarely-used concept exists at the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
-level and is called a
European Day of Mourning A European Day of Mourning is a day marked by mourning and memorial activities in member states of the European Union. They are declared by the union and are separate from national days of mourning, which are designated at the national level. A ...
. The
European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
first introduced the concept on 12 September 2001, when a day of mourning was declared across EU member states for the victims of the terrorist attacks in the United States. A second day of mourning was held in November 2015 for the victims of the Paris attacks.


Remembrance events

While not the same as a national day of mourning, some remembrance events and protests are called a "day of mourning". *
Circassian Day of Mourning The Circassian Day of Mourning () or the Day of Mouning for the Victims of the Circassian Genocide (often censored in Russian media as Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Caucasus War) is mourned every year on 21 May in remembrance of the vi ...
, held May 21, commemorating the Circassian genocide and the Circassian defeat in the Russian-Circassian War *
Day of Mourning (Australia) The Day of Mourning was a protest held by Aboriginal Australians on 26 January 1938, the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet, which marked the beginning of the colonisation of Australia. It was declared to be a protest of 150 ye ...
, annual protest of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians held on Australia Day, 26 January *
National Day of Mourning (United States protest) The National Day of Mourning is an annual demonstration, held on the fourth Thursday in November, that aims to educate the public about Native Americans in the United States, notably the Wampanoag and other tribes of the Eastern United State ...
, an American Indian protest held on the fourth Thursday of November * National Day of Mourning (Canadian observance), held 28 April, a commemoration of workers killed or injured on the job *
Nakba Day Nakba Day ( ar, ذكرى النكبة, translit=Dhikra an-Nakba, lit=Memory of the Catastrophe) is the day of commemoration for the ''Nakba'', also known as the Palestinian Catastrophe, which comprised the destruction of Palestinian society an ...
, annual commemoration of the
1948 Palestinian exodus In 1948 more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs – about half of prewar Palestine's Arab population – were expelled or fled from their homes, during the 1948 Palestine war. The exodus was a central component of the fracturing, dispossession ...
on 15 May by
Palestinians Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
worldwide.


See also

*
European Day of Mourning A European Day of Mourning is a day marked by mourning and memorial activities in member states of the European Union. They are declared by the union and are separate from national days of mourning, which are designated at the national level. A ...


References

{{reflist Death customs National days Observances honoring the dead