Constitution Day
Constitution day is one of the numerous secular holidays existing in many democratic countries. By establishing such holidays countries want to emphasize the importance of their constitutions and make people remember and respect the long way they've gone to create them. In general, this is the day of honoring democracy in general; as the constitution of a country is a certain code of laws that protect all basic rights of a human and a citizen, provide all major political principles according to which the state is governed. Of course, one of the first constitutions was created in the United States of America, and many European and not only European countries followed the US in establishing their principal codes of rights based on the US constitution. In United States the day recognizing the ratification of the constitution is also called the Citizenship day, as it also honors those who have become US citizens. The holiday is observed on the 17th of September. There is a tradition supported by a law in the United States that obliges all federally funded educational establishments to organize special programs on the history of the American Constitution on this day. When the day falls on a weekend, schools and other institutions fulfill this condition on a nearest weekday. What is also interesting, unlike on many other federal, religious or state holidays state employees don't get a day-off on this day. In other countries the observance is largely the same: the day is dedicated to teaching schoolchildren and students about the history and political system of the country.