November 20 — World Children's Day: history and traditions of the holiday

Every year on November 20, most countries of the world, including Russia, celebrate World Children's Day, a date dedicated to the protection of the rights of minors. In 2025, the holiday falls on a Wednesday. Read about the history of the holiday, traditions, and interesting facts in the Izvestia article.

World Children's Day 2025: the history of the holiday

The holiday was established in 1954 on the initiative of the UN General Assembly. The resolution provided for the celebration of World Children's Day starting in 1956 on any date chosen by each country.

However, over time, the date became the same — November 20th. It was on this day that two key international documents were adopted over the years: in 1959, the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, and in 1989, the Convention on the Rights of the Child. They laid the legal foundation for recognizing children as independent entities with a full range of rights to education, medical care, protection from violence, and participation in society.

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The Convention, ratified by 196 countries, enshrines the obligations of States to protect the rights of minors regardless of their origin, gender, religion or social status.

Initially, the purpose of the holiday was to strengthen mutual understanding between children of different cultures and faiths. Over time, the emphasis has shifted towards strengthening the responsibility of Governments for the living conditions of the younger generation.

Traditions of celebrating World Children's Day in Russia and the world

In different countries, the traditions associated with the celebration of Children's Day have developed in different ways. For example, in the United States, even before the UN initiative appeared, in 1856, Pastor Charles Leonard dedicated one of the June Sundays to children, making it part of Christian education. Later, this day began to be celebrated on a secular level.

And in Paraguay, Children's Memorial Day was celebrated on August 16, in honor of the heroic Battle of Acosta New in 1869, where thousands of teenagers died fighting for their homeland. In this country, the date has a mourning, but important symbolic meaning.

In the USSR, World Children's Day was not officially celebrated, but caring for childhood was an integral part of the state ideology. Mass celebrations with the participation of children traditionally took place on key dates — May 1 and November 7. Matinees, collective birthday greetings, concerts and themed events were organized in schools, kindergartens and pioneer camps.

At the same time, the Soviet Union became one of the active participants in another significant global initiative, the International Children's Day. It was established in 1949 at the Congress of the International Democratic Federation of Women in Paris. The reason was the difficult post-war situation, when millions of children were orphaned, lived in destroyed houses, and suffered from hunger and disease. The purpose of the new holiday is to protect children's rights to life, education, recreation and peaceful childhood. The first International Children's Day was held on June 1, 1950, simultaneously in 51 countries of the world, including the USSR, where the date symbolically coincided with the beginning of the summer school holidays and became truly popular.

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Currently, in Russia and other countries, the celebration of World Children's Day provides for a wide program of events. Educational institutions offer thematic lessons on the rights of the younger generation, discussions on family values and child protection. Public organizations initiate charity events aimed at helping children from low-income families and orphanages.

Concerts, drawing contests, performances, and public lectures are held in major cities. International human rights and humanitarian organizations organize conferences, forums, and round tables where key challenges of our time are discussed: digital security, mental and emotional health, and access to education.

Interesting facts about World Children's Day

• According to the UN, more than 333 million children in the world (or one in six children) live in extreme poverty, and tens of millions do not have access to schools or medical care.
• The record for having many children belongs to the Russian Valentina Vasilyeva, who lived in the XVIII century. She gave birth to 69 children — this case is still mentioned in demographic studies as unique.
• Children's memory begins to form around the age of three. Everything that happened before that falls into the category of so-called childhood amnesia. This is not a disease, but a process when the brain has not yet learned how to reliably store and "catalog" memories of specific events, since the main "archivist" of our memory, a brain region called the hippocampus, has not yet matured in toddlers.
• In newborns, the heart beats twice as fast as in adults, up to 160 beats per minute, reflecting the rapid development of the body.

Earlier, Izvestia told when and how International Students' Day is celebrated in Russia and the world.