defestival1-8, Exercise 1: Why 3 October and not 9 November

Model answer (check the details):

Germany's national holiday is on 3 October because that was the day in 1990 on which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic, so it marks the legal act of unification. The obvious alternative was 9 November, the day in 1989 when the Berlin Wall was opened. But 9 November is also the date of the November pogroms of 1938, when synagogues were burned and Jewish people attacked and arrested across Germany, and of Hitler's failed putsch in Munich in 1923. It is also the date of the republic's proclamation in 1918 and of the execution of Robert Blum in 1848. A holiday of national celebration on a day that also marks one of the worst events of the Nazi years was thought unsuitable, so the date of the treaty was chosen instead. 9 November is kept as a day of remembrance and reflection, while 3 October is a day off and a celebration.

The point: the calendar records not only what a country celebrates but what it chooses not to.