Day of Remembrance and Honour

Since 1999 Uzbekistan has marked 9 May as the Day of Remembrance and Honour, a day off. It remembers those who died in the Second World War and honours surviving veterans and the whole older generation.

Nearly 1.5 million people went to the front from Uzbekistan and almost half a million never returned. Uzbek families adopted tens of thousands of children evacuated during the war; the Tashkent blacksmith Shaahmed Shamahmudov and his wife raised 15 such children.

How it is marked

Flowers are laid at the Mourning Mother memorial on Memorial Square in Tashkent and in Victory Park, opened in 2020; veterans are congratulated and neighbourhoods hold charity meals.