What holiday is celebrated on December 8 in Ukraine: all about this day

On December 8, Orthodox believers honor the memory of the 70 Apostles: Sosthenes, Apollos, Cephas, Tychicus, Epaphroditus, Cesarius, Onesiphorus, and the martyr Anfisa in Rome. Serhiy, Kyrylo, Anfisa, and Victoria celebrate their name days.

The world celebrates World Climate Day, World Candlelighting Day, World Choir Day, the Immaculate Conception, Take Note Day, International Radio and Television Day for Children, and in Ukraine - Charity Day. OBOZ.UA tells about the holidays and significant events of this day.

What holidays are celebrated on December 8

December 8, according to the New Julian calendar, is the day of remembrance of the martyr Anfisa of Rome, who lived in Rome in the late IV - early V century. Anfisa became a disciple of Bishop Ambrose of Mediolanus. Those were the times of Christian persecution. Anfisa did not renounce her faith, so she was captured and tortured by fire.

According to biblical tradition, the 70 Holy Apostles: Sosthenes, Apollos, Cephas, Tychicus, Epaphroditus, Cesar, and Onesiphorus were chosen and sent by Jesus Christ to preach the gospel some time after the 12 Apostles were chosen.

In 2007, a presidential decree established a separate official holiday, the Day of Charity, which falls on the second Sunday of December. The purpose is to support public initiatives, actively promote the development of charitable activities, and support organizations and structures engaged in good deeds and volunteering.

On the initiative of several environmental associations in France and Belgium, the World Climate Day was launched on December 8. The UN General Assembly established the official international holiday in 1972.

Other countries around the world also celebrate December 8:

• Constitution Day in Romania;
• Battle Day in the Falkland Islands;
• Student's Day in Bulgaria and Macedonia;
• Brownie Day in the United States;
• Finnish Music Day in Finland;
• Festival of Lights in Lyon, France.

Notable historical events on December 8

• 1868 - the Prosvita Society was founded in Lviv.
• 1881 - the Vienna Ringtheater burned down, killing about 850 people (the worst theater fire in world history).
• 1919 - the Allied Coalition (members of the Entente) recognized the "Curzon Line" as the eastern border of Poland, legally approving Poland's annexation of some Ukrainian ethnic lands - Kholmshchyna, Pidlasia, Lemkivshchyna, and Posyannia.
• 1941 - The United States and Great Britain declare war on Japan.
• 1980 - 25-year-old Mark Chapman kills John Lennon with several shots in the back as he returns home with his wife Yoko Ono in the evening.
• 1987 - In Washington, DC, Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, and Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, signed an agreement on the elimination of intermediate-range and short-range missiles.

• 1991 - The leaders of Ukraine, Belarus, and the Russian Federation meet in Bialowieza Forest. The Belovezhskaya Pushcha Agreement legally confirmed the fact that the USSR ceased to exist as a state.
• 1994 - A group of researchers led by Sigurd Hofmann at the Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research synthesized the chemical element 111, later called X-ray.
• 2010 - With the second launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 and the first launch of the SpaceX Dragon, SpaceX becomes the first private company to successfully launch, orbit, and safely return a spacecraft.
• 2013 - at 18:00 in Kyiv, during a rally on Euromaidan, a monument to Lenin on Bessarabka Street is toppled

Who was born on December 8

• 65 BC - Horace, ancient Roman poet of the "golden age" of Roman literature.
• 1542 - Mary Stuart (d. 1587), Queen of Scots from 1542.

• 1861 - Georges Méliès, French inventor and film director, one of the founders of world cinema.
• 1876 - Maria Krushelnytska, Ukrainian actress and writer.
• 1878 - Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko, Ukrainian activist, Colonel-General of the UPR Army, Commander-in-Chief of the UGA, commander of the 1st Winter Campaign.
• 1947 - Thomas Robert Cheek, American molecular biologist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• 1970 - Juan Manuel de Prada, one of the most talented writers in contemporary Spanish literature. Winner of the Planeta Prize (1997) and the Biblioteca de la Breve Prize (2007).
• 1978 - Ian Somerhalder, American actor.
• 1982 - Nicki Minaj, American singer, rap artist, actress and model.

Died on this day:

• 1784 - Hryhoriy Poletyka, Ukrainian cultural figure, probable author of the History of the Ruses (b. 1725).

• 1864 - George Boole, British philosopher and mathematician.
• 1903 - Herbert Spencer, English philosopher and sociologist.
• 1978 - Golda Meir, one of the founders of the state of Israel, Prime Minister of Israel in 1969-1974.
• 1980 - John Lennon, British musician.
• 2016 - John Glenn, US astronaut, test pilot.

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