JANUARY 1ST – CUBA
Cuba celebrates Liberation Day on January 1st, the day of the victory of the revolution led by Fidel Castro in 1959.
Victory day is celebrated on January 2nd. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean meet, to the east of the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, south of both the American state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Hispaniola (Haiti/Dominican Republic), and north of both Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital, other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey.
The official area of the Republic of Cuba is 109,884 km2 , (42,426 sq mi). The main island of Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean. Cuba is the second-most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti, with over 11 million inhabitants.
JANUARY 1ST – SUDAN
Sudan is a country in Northeast Africa bordering the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan and The Red Sea. It has a population of 45 million and occupies 1,886,068 km2 , (728,215 sq miles).
The capital is Khartoum. Conquered by Egypt in the 19th century, it attained its modern borders and began the process of political, agricultural and economic development. Events in Egypt led to Sudan becoming governed by Britain in 1899. On January 1st 1956 Sudan was declared an independent state and has since been ruled by a series of unstable governments and military regimes, it has also witnessed one of the worlds worst genocides of recent times.
JANUARY 4TH – MYANMAR
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, formerly Burma, is a country in Southeast Asia.
On January 4th it celebrates independence from Britain in 1948. It is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia, and has a population of about 54 million as of 2017. Myanmar is bordered by Bangladesh and India to its northwest, China to its northeast, Laos and Thailand to its east and southeast, and the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to its south and southwest.
The country’s capital city is Naypyidaw, and its largest city is Yangon, (Rangoon). For most of the the years since independence the country has experienced rampant ethnic strife and following a coup d’état in 1962, it became a military dictatorship under the Burma Socialist Programme Party.
JANUARY 26TH – AUSTRALIA
Australia Day is the official National Day of Australia observed annually on 26th January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove and raising of the Union Flag by Arthur Phillip following days of exploration of Port Jackson in New South Wales.
In present-day Australia, celebrations aim to reflect the diverse society and landscape of the nation and are marked by community and family events, reflections on Australian history, official community awards and citizenship ceremonies welcoming new members of the Australian community.
On New Year’s Day 1901, the British colonies of Australia formed a federation, marking the birth of modern Australia. A National Day of Unity and celebration was looked for. It was not until 1935 that all Australian states and territories adopted use of the term “Australia Day” to mark the date, and not until 1994 that the date was consistently marked by a public holiday on that day by all states and territories.
JANUARY 26TH – INDIA
Republic Day is a national holiday in India, when the country marks and celebrates the date on which the Constitution of India came into effect in 1950, replacing the Government of India Act, (1935), as the governing document of India and thus, turning the nation into a newly formed republic.
The day also marks the transition of India from an autonomous Commonwealth realm with a British Monarch as nominal head of the Indian Dominion, to a fully sovereign republic in the Commonwealth of Nations with the President of India as the nominal head of the Indian Union.
26th January was chosen as the date for Republic Day because it was on this day in 1929 when the Declaration of Indian Independence, (Purna Swaraj), was proclaimed by the Indian National Congress in lieu of the Realm status as a Dominion later instated by the departing British Regime.
