Day of the National Flag (Ukraine)

23 August is celebrated as the Day of the National Flag (День Державного прапора України, lit. 'Day of the National Flag of Ukraine') in Ukraine; beginning in 2004. 24 July was previously marked as National Flag Day in Kyiv. The first ceremonial raising of the yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flag in modern times took place on 24 July 1990 at the flagstaff of the Kyiv City Council, one-and-a-half years before the flag was officially adopted as the National flag of the Ukrainian state (early 1992).

Since 1992 Independence Day of Ukraine is celebrated on 24 August. According to the official version, on August 23, 1991 — after the failure of the putsch in Moscow — a group of people's deputies brought a blue-yellow Ukrainian flag into the session hall of the Verkhovna Rada. The consecration of the flag was conducted by the priest of the UAOC Peter Boyk. The Decree of the President of Ukraine, L. Kuchma, "On the Day of the State Flag of Ukraine" No. 987/2004 was tied to this event, a corresponding picture was painted on the wall of the VRU, and this flag, like a relic, is solemnly kept under glass in the VRU museum. The next day, Ukraine declared independence.

The current version of the decree is published on the website of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

Historically the blue-yellow flag is first verifiably documented on 25 June 1848 when the Supreme Ruthenian Council hoisted it over the Lviv (Lemberg) Townhall (Rathaus).