A number of additions and changes are

present in North Korea’s official 2015 calendar, Daily NK has confirmed after

obtaining a copy. Most notably of these additions is that of a new public

holiday to be celebrated on June 19th, marking the date in 1964 when Kim Jong

Il graduated from Kim Il Sung University and began working as part of the

Party’s organizational leadership. Various events related to the commemorative

day take place every year on this date in North Korea, but this is the first

time it has been recognized as a national holiday.

The explanation offered in the calendar for

the new holiday reads, “The great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il started work at

the Central Committee of the Worker’s Party of Korea,” interpreted as a move to

formalize the commencement of Kim Jong Il’s “revolutionary history.” Touting Kim

Jong Il’s achievements and instilling residents with recognition of Kim Jong

Eun’s place within the legitimizing Baekdu bloodline [i.e. a member of the Kim family] are other theories behind the holiday’s inclusion.

Traditionally, Korean culture observes a

three-year mourning period, for which Kim Jong Il is is drawing to a close, leading most to assume that full-fledged entry into the Kim Jong Eun era

would see the addition of the young leader’s birthday [January 8th] to the nation’s

ideological diary, but the 2015 schedule remains absent of any such incorporation.

Dates marking Kim Jong Eun’s appointment to first Chairman of the National Defense Commission [April 14th], and his promotion to first secretary of the Workers’ Party [April 11th], were also expected additions to the state’s official holiday observances, but

no such inclusions appear, though explanations of both the milestones appear in the margins of the upcoming year’s calendar.

Some speculate that by decreeing his date

of birth as a holiday would place additional pressure on the leader, who lacks

the long list of accomplishments to bolster such a venerable image.

“This is for him to stress his humility

while attaching more importance to the previous generations [of the Kim dynasty],”

a senior defector said to the Daily NK on this decision. “Designating the

Marshal’s [Kim Jong Eun] birthday as an official holiday will come after its

propagandized as stemming from the people’s unvarying support for it,” he asserted.

Other holidays, unrelated to the Kim

regime, also appear on the calendar’s pages: Solar New Year’s Day on January 1st and Lunar New Year’s

Day on February 19th, as well as the traditional harvest festival, Chuseok,

which falls on September 27th next year.

March 5th, expressed by the state as “the 15th of the

first month by the lunar calendar [Korean folk festival],” was also added as a public holiday for the

upcoming year. April 5th, “Chungmyung Day” falls on a Sunday, and as such, its designation as an official public holiday cannot be confirmed for 2015.

Another notable change is the addition of

“Mother’s Day” on November 16th as a national holiday for the first time in

North Korean history. In May 2012, the Presidium of the Supreme People’s

Assembly declared this day “Mother’s Day,” commemorating the First National

Meeting of Mothers held on November 16th, 1961, during which Kim Il Sung’s

essay “The Duty of Mothers in the Education of Children” was released; however, until now, it was never observed as a public holiday.

Predictably, North Korea’s 2015 public holidays include other longstanding examples such as Party

Foundation Day [October 10th], and the birthdays of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong

Il, April 15th and February 16th, respectively.

▲ 2015 public and traditional holidays in

North Korea:

January: Solar New Year’s Day (1.1)

February: Birth date of Kim Jong Il

[“Gwangmyungsung Day”/Day of the Shining Star) (2.16); Lunar New Year’s Day

(1.19)

March: “The 15th of the first month

by the lunar calendar” [Cheongwoldaeboreum] (3.5)

April: Birth date of Kim Il Sung

(“Taeyang Day”/Day of the Sun) (4.15); Chosun People’s Army

Foundation Day (4.25)

May: Labor Day (5.1)

June: Chosun Children’s Union Foundation

Day (6.6); “The great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il started work at the Central

Committee of the Worker’s Party of Korea” (6.19)

July: “Day of Victory in the

Fatherland Liberation War” (7.27)

August: Liberation Day (8.15), Day of

Songun (8.25)

September: National Day (9.9); Chuseok

(9.27)

October: Party Foundation Day (10.10)

November: Mother’s Day (11.16)

December: Constitution Day (12.27)*



*This holiday falls on a Sunday, and therefore, its status as an official

public holiday cannot be confirmed.