| Holiday Name: | |
| Significance: | The anniversary of the signing of the Ukrainian constitution of 1996 |
| Observedby: | Ukraine |
| Scheduling: | same day each year |
| Date: | 28 June |
| Frequency: | annual |
| Duration: | 1 day |
| Celebrations: | Speeches by politicians[1] [2] |
| Type: | National |
Constitution Day (uk|День Конституції) is a Ukrainian public holiday celebrated on 28 June since 1996.[3] [4] It commemorates the anniversary of the approval by the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) of the Constitution of Ukraine on 28 June 1996.[4] [5]
51 hours after taking office as President of Ukraine, after winning the 1994 Ukrainian presidential election, Leonid Kuchma created the Constitutional Commission, which led to the adoption of a constitution of Ukraine in 1996.[6] (At the time the 1978 Constitution of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was in force in Ukraine.[7]) The Constitution was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada at 9:20 am on 28 June 1996 after deputies had worked all day and all night on the project, remaining in the session hall without breaks.[8] 315 people's deputies, out of a needed 300, voted for the adoption of the Basic Law.[8] Constitution Day did become a public holiday in Ukraine because its foundation was enshrined in the constitution itself (it is the only public holiday that is mentioned in the constitution).[9] Soviet Constitution day (7 October) was never observed in the Ukrainian SSR (the predecessor of modern Ukraine).[10]
In the 2000s most Ukrainians did not see Constitution Day as a holiday, but as an ordinary day off; about 10% believed it should be a working day (12% in 2008; this number had shrunk from 14% in 2003).[11] Only in Western Ukraine was the holiday among the list of most respected holidays in Ukraine.[12]
In the 2010s the popularity of the holiday hovered around 5% according to research by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).
The Russian invasion of Ukraine that started on 24 February 2022 led to a reappraisal of this and other public holidays in Ukraine.[13] A March 2024 study by KIIS found that the popularity of Independence Day of Ukraine and Defenders Day had both almost more than doubled (from 37% to 64% and from 29% to 58%).[13] Constitution Day did not nearly reach those figures: but it did became twice as popular, from 14% in 2021 to 29% in 2023 and in (an opinion poll held in February) 2024 28% of KIIS respondents labelled the holiday "most important or favorite".[13]