HOLIDAYS

The Bank of Lao is the central bank of the country.

The Government adopted October 7th 1968 as the founding day of the banking sector, as this was the date of the first printing of the liberated Laotian Kip currency under the leadership of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party. The currency was printed in a cave in Viengxai district, Hauphanh province, which was a revolutionary base at the time.

In 1975 after the establishment of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Bank of Lao merged with the former Lao National Bank to become the central bank for the new country.

At 1:12am on October 6th 1948 an earthquake struck Turkmenistan. The earthquake was recorded as having a magnitude of 7.3 and the epicentre was just south of the capital, Ashgabat.

Within a matter of minutes, Ashgabat and about 40 surrounding villages were reduced to rubble, with almost all brick buildings collapsing and concrete structures heavily damaged.

Details of the damage were censored by the Turkmen government, so estimates of casualties vary. At the time, deaths were estimated at 10,000. After independence from Soviet rule, it was revealed that the number was closer to 110,00, which was 10% of the population of the country at the time.

That’s not to say that the Soviets didn’t try to respond. A thousand doctors and medical employees immediately arrived in Ashgabat from all parts of the former Soviet Union to assist the survivors and the surrounding Soviet states offered help in whatever way they could.

On Earthquake Memorial Day in 2009, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said about 176,000 people suffered due to the Earthquake.

“One of the most powerful earthquakes in the world occurred in Ashgabat and its surroundings on October 6th 1948, at 1:12… [the] Natural disaster was a severe test for Turkmen people and razed to the ground the city with 198,000 people for 15-20 seconds,” Berdymukhamedov said.

In 2002, the government of Turkmenistan commemorated the devastating event by issuing special coins featuring images of President Suparmurat Niyazov and his family members.  The earthquake killed Niyazov’s mother and the rest of his family, leaving him an orphan.

From the late 19th century, Britain and French had been wrestling for control of the New Hebrides, a group of about 80 islands in the South Pacific Ocean.

In 1906, they agreed to share control through a unique Anglo-French Condominium.

With the movement for independence gaining momentum in the 1960s, Father Walter Lini established the New Hebrides National Party (now the Vanua’aku Pati) in 1974.

The date for full independence of Vanuatu was agreed in 1979 when the drafting of a constitution got underway. The Constitutional Committee consisted of representatives of different political parties, religious leaders and local tribal chiefs.

The Constitution was signed on October 5th 1979. It came into force on July 30th 1980, when the New Hebrides gained independence as the Republic of Vanuatu

The feast day was a public holiday in Italy until 1977, when it was removed as part of a law reducing the number of holidays for economic reasons.

In advance of the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis in 2026, two combined bills (Noi Moderati and Fratelli d’Italia) were proposed in 2025 to reinstate the October 4th holiday.

On October 1st 2025, the Italian senate gave final approval to the bill after it had passed in the lower house the previous week week with 247 votes in favour and just two against.

The bill, backed by the ruling right-wing parties, calls for cultural initiatives dedicated to Italy’s patron saint and the values he embodied: peace, fraternity, inclusion and environmental protection.

Since 1990, the ‘Tag der Deutschen Einheit’ has been a national holiday in Germany. It is the only official national holiday. All other holidays are managed at a federal level.

On November 9th 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, paving the way towards the reunification of Germany which had been split at the end of the second world war.

The reunification of Germany took place on October 3rd 1990 when the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) was incorporated into the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).

Following the GDR’s first free elections on March 18th 1990, negotiations between the GDR and FRG culminated in a Unification Treaty.

Further negotiations between the GDR and FRG and the four occupying powers produced the so-called “Two Plus Four Treaty” granting full sovereignty to a unified German state, whose two halves had previously been bound by a number of limitations as a result of its post-WWII-status as an occupied nation. The treaty was signed on September 20th 1990.

Originally November 9th was proposed to be the national German Unity Day reflecting the huge step taken toward Germany’s unification on that day.

However, the unification treaty declared October 3rd as the official national holiday, ending the division between east and west of Germany.

The day commemorates the date when Christopher Columbus first set foot in the Americas.

Columbus’ voyages across the Atlantic Ocean initiated the European exploration and colonization of the Americas.

While the first voyage in 1492 was immensely significant, Columbus did not actually reach the American mainland until his 3rd voyage in 1498. Instead, while trying to find a sea route to India, he made landfall on an island in the Bahamas that he named San Salvador. 

He was also not the earliest European explorer to reach the Americas.

There is an old saying that ‘two heads are better than one’. In San Marino that saying is literally taken as a form of government.

In a tradition that dates back to 1243 and based on a custom of the Roman Republic, this tiny republic has not one, but two heads of state.

Known as the Captains Regent, two people are elected every six months by the Grand and General Council, the country’s legislative body.

The two Captain Regent are usually selected from different political parties to give a unique balanced government. Once they have served the six months, they cannot become regents again for another three years.

This may sound a bit bonkers to those of us from countries whose leaders are elected for periods of four or five years, but the roles are mainly symbolic and more like that of a king or queen rather than a president.

Women were prevented from taking public positions in San Marino until 1972. The first female Captains Regent was elected in April 1981.

If you are visiting San Marino on April 1st or October 1st, you can watch the investiture of the new Captains Regent which takes place at the Piazza della Liberta, outside the Government Palace.