Navy Day: history and traditions

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

In 2010, the member countries of the International Maritime Organization at the UN decided to add to the list of professional holidays. And now, every June 25, sailors accept congratulations on the Sailor's Day. However, for more than seventy years, one of the most beloved and widely celebrated celebrations in Russia has been Navy Day.

It was approved exactly two years before the Great Patriotic War and since then it has been celebrated on the last Sunday of July. Perhaps this is a coincidence, but it is interesting that the end of this summer month has firmly entered the history of the Russian fleet as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century. On July 26-27, 1714, Russian sailors won their first major victory, defeating a detachment of Swedish ships off the B altic island of Gangut, and this operation was commanded not by a professional military man, but by Tsar Peter the Great himself. In commemoration of this victory, by decree of the ruler (and at the same time the creator of the Russian fleet) on July 27every year solemn divine services, naval parades, and, of course, fireworks and cannon firing, which the tsar-naval commander loved so much, were held.

For residents of cities such as St. Petersburg or Vladivostok, Navy Day is remarkable, first of all, because they can admire the most beautiful sight - a grandiose parade of warships. It should be noted that only sailors have this privilege on the occasion of their holiday. There are no special parades of this magnitude for other branches of the military.

Definitely something to see on Navy Day! Destroyers, cruisers and ships of other types, smartly decorated with multi-colored flags, line up near the shore, and crew members in full dress stand in solemn formation along their sides. The ships arrange demonstrative artillery and rocket firing, the marines, accompanied by fire support from the sea, land on the shore, demonstrating coherence and skill in performing landing operations, and from the sky they are covered by planes and helicopters of naval aviation. Rescuers, underwater special forces soldiers and representatives of other naval professions also show their art. In the evening twilight, the silhouettes of the ships, on which all side lights are lit on the occasion of the celebrations, look especially impressive against the background of the water surface, and at the end of the holiday, fireworks thunder.

Congratulations on this day with full right do not acceptnot only the soldiers themselves, but also their families. And in general, Navy Day is really a popular holiday, because among several generations of Russian men there are many who served in the Navy. Even in the cities most remote from the sea, on this day you can meet former "Moremans" who proudly put on their vests and peakless caps in honor of the holiday.

Getting together in a designated place (usually in green parks), they sometimes celebrate their holiday too noisily, but such outdoor activities very rarely end in unpleasant incidents.

In the evening, when bunches of festive fireworks are scattered in the sky (and it is arranged in all major cities - both "land" and coastal), "brothers", as sailors traditionally call themselves, announce the air with a thunderous "Hurrah! Hooray! Hooray!" and exclamations of "Happy Navy Day!".