Women's Day 2022: Know the history, importance and significance of the day

Ahead of International Women’s Day on Tuesday, here is all that you need to know about why is it celebrated, when did it come into existence and the three colours that are significant to the day.

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Like every year, International Women's Day will be celebrated on Tuesday, March 08. It is a day dedicated to women in order to empower them, respect their achievements, hear their inspiring life stories and celebrate womanhood. In many countries including Russia, this day is marked as a holiday.

About 113 years ago today, a labour movement in New York in 1908 laid the foundation for this day. Although officially it started for the first time in 1975 when the United Nations started celebrating it.

International Women's Day is celebrated all over the world. This special day is displayed with three colours - violet, green and white. Each colour also gives a special message to the world. According to reports, Britain's Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) had decided these three colours in the year 1908. According to the International Women's Day campaign, purple is a symbol of justice and dignity, while green represents hope. White colour is considered an indicator of purity. In this way, these three colours together symbolize justice, dignity, hope and purity for women.

Even though International Women's Day is celebrated around the globe, the ways for its celebrations are different everywhere. Several countries, including Russia, have declared it as a national holiday to honour women.

In Russia, there is a practice of giving a gift, while in Italy, respect is shown to women by giving flowers of Mimosa. In India too, many programs are organised on this special day. Every year in the United States of America, the President honours women on this day on their achievements.

After the labour movement, the American Socialist Party started celebrating National Women's Day. After this, the idea of celebrating this day internationally came for the first time to a woman named Clara Zetkin. She had put this idea in front of everyone at the International Conference of Working Women held in Copenhagen. More than 100 women representatives from 17 countries attended this conference.