September 9 — Tester's Day: history, traditions, how to congratulate

Every year on September 9th, the global IT community celebrates Tester's Day, a professional holiday for software quality assessment specialists. In 2025, the date falls on a Tuesday. How the term "bug" appeared, who is congratulated on this day, and how, read the Izvestia article.

Tester's Day — 2025: the history of the profession

The idea of the holiday has its roots in the post-war era of technological breakthrough. In 1947, a curious but significant incident occurred at Harvard University. Scientists testing the Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator computer have discovered a hardware glitch. The cause of the problem turned out to be an ordinary moth that closed the contacts of one of the relays. The process of extracting it and then "fixing" the system was humorously referred to in the technical journal as "debugging" — literally "cleaning up the bug".

This case not only gave the IT industry the term "bug" to refer to a software error, but also laid the foundation for an entire profession. Since then, September 9th has become a symbolic date for the IT community, although the holiday has not received official status.

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The very name "tester", derived from the English "test", has become a symbol of a systematic approach to quality assurance. Today, a test specialist is not just a bug catcher, but an engineer with knowledge of software architecture, databases, query languages, and system administration.

The tester must be able to think both as a user (to evaluate convenience and logic) and as an engineer (to analyze parameters, identify deviations, and document problems). It is this duality of thinking that makes the profession one of the most dynamic in the IT field.

Traditions of celebrating Tester's Day

Despite its unofficial status, Tester's Day is actively celebrated in the IT community, especially in major Russian cities. Companies congratulate employees and give them memorable gifts.

In addition to corporate events and friendly meetings, professional conferences are held on this day, during which experts discuss modern industry challenges and advanced approaches to automated testing.

Lectures by leading experts, workshops on new tools, and demonstrations of innovative solutions in the field of software quality assurance will also be organized on September 9.

Many companies organize master classes for students and schoolchildren, as well as contests, for example, for the best test case.

Who and how is congratulated on September 9th — best wishes for Tester's Day

Testers are congratulated not only by colleagues, but also by friends, relatives, and even users. Izvestia has prepared several examples of how this can be done.:

"Congratulations on Tester's Day! Let the bugs give up without a fight, and every defect found turns into a plus to your reputation and a bonus to your salary!"

"Congratulations on the day when all bugs rest, and you receive well—deserved congratulations! Let no alert spoil your mood today, and every day starts with a green tick! Happy holidays."

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"Congratulations on your professional holiday! We wish that the system always had zero critical errors, and life was happy with a stable build! Happy Tester's Day!".

"Happy Tester's Day! We wish you to be the one whose work remains unnoticeable just because everything works perfectly! Let every click add confidence, and let every scenario end in success!"

"Congratulations on your professional holiday! You are the ones who make the digital world a better place, this is a great reason to be proud! Let your reality be bug-free, and let your life be like a tested system — reliable, logical, and enjoyable every day!"

What to give away on Tester's Day

Tester's Day is an important date for software quality assurance professionals. On September 9th, they should be pleased not only with kind words, but also with themed gifts. Here are some examples:

• board games for logic or programming ("Code Names", "Hack Trick");
• stylish mugs with inscriptions like "Bugs don't sleep" or "The tester is the developer's best friend";
• useful devices, such as an external battery or an organizer for gadgets.;
• equipment care kits.

Earlier, Izvestia reported on the history and traditions of celebrating Financier's Day in Russia.