19 March: What holiday is it today? Who is being honoured and what is being celebrated around the world?
19 March marks International Customer Day. This is an unofficial date, established in 2010 by members of the business community to highlight the importance of trust between companies and their customers. On this day, businesses often run promotions, offer discounts and special deals.
19 March also marks International Read Aloud Day – a date designed to promote reading aloud, particularly among children. Such initiatives are usually used as a reminder of the role of shared reading in the development of speech, imagination and emotional connection between adults and children.
Eid al-Fitr, or Uraza Bayram, holds a special place on this day – it is one of the main festivals in Islam, marking the end of Ramadan. According to publicly available calendar data for 2026, this date falls on 19 March, although in some countries the official public holidays may vary depending on local practices regarding the lunar calendar.
Among the historical events associated with 19 March is the year 721 BC, when a solar eclipse was recorded in Babylon. In 1474, a law was passed in Venice that is considered the first step towards systematic copyright protection. Later dates include the premiere of Charles Gounod’s opera ‘Faust’ in Paris in 1859, the first complete performance of ‘Boris Godunov’ at the Metropolitan Opera in 1913, and the first televised Academy Awards ceremony in 1953. In 1958, the first session of the European Parliament took place in Strasbourg, and in 2019, Karen Uhlenbeck became the first woman to win the Abel Prize in mathematics.
Among those born on 19 March, people usually mention the explorer David Livingstone, the traveller and translator Richard Francis Burton, the singer Valery Leontiev, the actor Bruce Willis and the footballer Alessandro Nesta.
In the church calendar, this day honours the holy martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria. In Christian tradition, they are remembered as a married couple who dedicated their lives to their faith and suffered persecution for their Christian beliefs. Believers turn to them with prayers for the strengthening of the family, love, patience and spiritual unity.
In folk tradition, 19 March was associated with the definitive arrival of spring. On this day, people tried to avoid arguments, spent more time with their families and kept a close eye on the weather. A warm day was considered a sign of an early and mild spring, frost a harbinger of a prolonged cold spell, rain a sign of a bountiful summer, and a clear sky a signal of dry and warm weather in the coming days.
Name days on 19 March are celebrated by Chrysanthus, Daria, Constantine, Maxim and Elena.
