The origin of the holiday goes back to 1925 when representatives from different countries met in Geneva, Switzerland to convene the first “World Conference for the Wellbeing of Children”.
After the conference, some governments around the world designated a day as Children’s Day. There was no specific date recommended, so countries used whatever date was most relevant to their culture.
Since the designation of the day, schools have been holding special activities in order to mark the occasion.
Children’s Day was declared a non-working public holiday by the Legislative Yuan in May 1990.
Due to requests from parents who wanted to join in the celebrations with their children, Taiwan extended the holiday scope to celebrate Women’s Day together with Children’s Day on April 4th 1993.
Since then, April 4th has been known as ‘The Combined Holidays of Women’s Day and Children’s Day’.
It was cancelled as a public holiday in 2000 as part of changes to public holidays following the implementation of two day weekends in Taiwan.
It was reinstated as a public holiday of Taiwan in 2011.
Children’s Day celebrations focus on honouring model students around Taiwan and by numerous parent-children activities sponsored by government and civic organizations. Thus, the day not only focuses on children but also aims to strengthen the bond between parents and their children.
International Women’s Day is observed in several countries on March 8th. In Taiwan, March 8th is a commemorative day but not a non-working public holiday.