Flag Day of the Finnish Defence Forces
Finnish national holiday
The Flag Day of the Finnish Defence Forces (Finnish: puolustusvoimain lippujuhlan päivä; Swedish: försvarets fanfest) is celebrated annually on June 4th in Finland, also known as the birthday of Marshal C. G. E. Mannerheim (1867–1951), and is the official Finnish flag-flying day. On the flag day, medals are awarded and distinguished soldiers and reservists are promoted.
History
During 1919–1939 the Flag Day of the Military (Finnish: Sotaväen lippujuhlan päivä) was celebrated on May 16th, as the Victory Day of the Troops of the Republic of Finland, i. e. the Whites over the Reds in the Civil War in 1918. President K. J. Ståhlberg confirmed the Day of the War People's flag fest as an official holiday in 1921. At first, the flag ceremony was mainly a celebration for the bourgeoisie, but in 1927 the parade was hosted by the Social Democratic Prime Minister Väinö Tanner, who had been acting as President of the Republic during President L. K. Relander's sick leave.
In 1942, during Mannerheim's 75th birthday, the Finnish government declared that from then on June 4th would officially celebrated as the Birthday of Marshal of Finland (Finnish: Suomen marsalkan syntymäpäivä). When the 85th anniversary of Mannerheim's birth had passed and Finland was about to celebrate its 35th anniversary in 1952, the flag-flying ceremony of the Defence Forces was celebrated with a parade in Helsinki's Senate Square. Forty contingents totaling over two thousand people from the Defence Forces and the Border Guard participated in the parade.
“Flag Day of the Finnish Defence Forces” enters the record as finnish national holiday. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Flag, Finnish and Defence can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4158225. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1867, 1951, 1919 and 1939.
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