January 22 - Ukrainian Unity Day (Den' Sobornosti)
On January 21, 1999, the President of
Ukraine decreed the "Day of
Reunion of Ukraine" (Den’ Sobornosti Ukrainy), a government holiday, celebrated every year on January
22 to mark the political
and historical significance of the 1919 agreement.
Unity Day is
a Ukrainian observance that commemorates the Treaty of
Unity signed on January 22, 1919. This year we
celebrate the 99-th anniversary of this event when
eastern and western Ukraine was united through
the Treaty of Unity.
Historically, up until
1919, these territories – Ukraine's People Republic and West
Ukrainian People Republic – belonged to different empires.
The agreement was aimed at
creating a unified Ukrainian state, a movement long awaited
by the intelligentsia
on both sides. «The territory of Ukraine,
divided over the centuries, including Galicia, Bukovyna, Carpathian Ruthenia, and Dnieper
Ukraine will now become a great-united Ukraine. Dreams, for which
the best sons of Ukraine
fought and died for, have
come true», - was written in
the text of the universal
made by the
Directorate of the Ukrainian People's
Republic.
To mark the
71st anniversary of the signing of
the Act Zluky
in 1990, over 300,000 Ukrainians created a human chain (approx.
482 km ) from Ukrainian capital Kiev to the
western Ukrainian city of Lviv
on January 21, 1990. Also, for the
first time since the period
of the Ukrainian
People's Republic, the blue and
yellow national flag was raised.