National day
Importance attached to the national day as well as the degree to which it is celebrated vary greatly from country to country. For example, Spain's national day Fiesta Nacional de España is held on 12 October, the day celebrated in other countries as Columbus Day or "Día de la Raza", and commemorates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. A military parade is held in Madrid celebrating the occasion. The national day in France is 14 July and known as the "Fête nationale" (known in English-speaking countries as Bastille Day) commemorating the Storming of the Bastille, which is considered the start of the French Revolution. It is widely celebrated and the French Tricolour is much in evidence, while the President of the Republic attends a military parade on the Champs-Élysées of Paris. In the United States, the Independence Day celebrations on 4 July are widely celebrated with parades, fireworks, picnics and barbecues. In Ireland, Saint Patrick's Day, 17 March, is the equivalent of a national day and has been a public holiday for many years. However, in the United Kingdom the constituent countries' patron saints' days are low-key affairs. In recent times campaigns have commenced to promote the national days of England, Scotland and Wales, with St. Andrew's Day being designated as an official bank holiday when the Scottish Parliament passed the St Andrew's Day Bank Holiday (Scotland) Act 2007. A National Day for the United Kingdom has also been proposed in recent years.
Border Guards Day
In Ukraine, Border Guards Day (Ukrainian: День прикордонника) has been celebrated on April 30 as an official holiday since 2018. After Ukraine gained its independence, the date of celebration was moved to November 4 by decree of President of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk. The new date however, did not take root, with border guards who served during the Soviet era recognizing May 28 as Border Guards Day. The holiday was moved back to its original in 2003, but was changed in 2018 to April 30 by order of President Petro Poroshenko as a result of his de-Russification policy following the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. The date commemorates that during the Ukrainian War of Independence Ukrainian troops established the border of the Ukrainian state in the settlement of Kovpaky on April 30, 1918.