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.
2009 French riots
A series of riots took place in July 2009 in France. On Bastille Day in the commune of Montreuil, a eastern suburb area of Paris, French youths set fire to 317 cars. Thirteen police officers were injured. On July 9, many youths started a protest in Firminy near Saint-Étienne, after the death of a young Algerian man, Mohamed Benmouna, in police custody. Benmouna's parents rejected the official account of suicide. Riots on Bastille day are a frequent occurrence in France as the disaffected protest high unemployment rates and failed integration policies for minorities. More than 240 people had been arrested near Paris.