It used to be a huge day of celebrations when I was growing up. Bigger than today's Valentinte's Day. As a primary school student, I remember it was obligatory to present female teachers with flowers.
During the initial Stalinist period of People’s Poland, Women's Day could hardly have been a barrel of laughs for women or anyone else. Between ’48 and ’56, Polish women were exhorted on Women’s Day to exceed production norms. Polish newspapers of the period graciously wished the women of Poland ‘greater work efficiency’. Instead of decadent Western pin-up calendars, portraits of female ‘Stakhaovites’, (superlatively productive workers), held pride of place in Polish workshops.
Soon after the somewhat grim days of imposed Stalinist rule in Poland, the communist powers that be noticed that, as well as having exceptional plough skills, Polish women were also mothers, wives and, above all, exceptionally beautiful. Although the state controlled mass-media still continued to exhort the women of Poland ‘to build a socialistic future’, the newspapers and the party made the drastic concession of wishing women personal happiness as well. Stalin and his cronies must have turned in their graves.
By the seventies, ‘International Women’s Day’, had gained acceptance by Polish society generally, in both the public and private spheres. It was at this time that ‘A flower for Ewa’ (A flower for Eve) became a Communist party slogan. The Day was celebrated by official speeches at work, men bought their female colleagues flowers, usually carnations, and boys presented the girls in their class with flowers as well. Under the ‘one size fits all’ policy of the then command economy, female factory workers were given presents of tights – all regulation size, of course.
http://sz-n.com/2014/03/a-flower-for-ewa-a-short-history-of-dzien-kobiet-womens-day-in-poland/
@*mrgrizz* wrote:we are going to have to change our calander, make it longer
we are running out of days for all these "days"
mr grizz, it has been going since 1911 - its nothing new. 
@boris1gary wrote:
@*mrgrizz* wrote:we are going to have to change our calander, make it longer
we are running out of days for all these "days"
mr grizz, it has been going since 1911 - its nothing new.
what about all the other "days"?you can't have them sharing
@**meep** wrote:
@rabbitearbandicoot wrote:when is International Men's Day?
19th of November
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Men%27s_Day
Darn, don't let the men in my life know.
I brainwashed them to think it was 29th February.
DEB
@*mrgrizz* wrote:
@boris1gary wrote:
@*mrgrizz* wrote:we are going to have to change our calander, make it longer
we are running out of days for all these "days"
mr grizz, it has been going since 1911 - its nothing new.
what about all the other "days"?you can't have them sharing
what days? May Day 1st of May, Xmas day are the only other "days" I bother about - of course there are a few historical anniversary dates that are marked on my calender.
@boris1gary wrote:
@*mrgrizz* wrote:we are going to have to change our calander, make it longer
we are running out of days for all these "days"
mr grizz, it has been going since 1911 - its nothing new.
That's right, Mr Grizz, nothing new at all.....
It was first celebrated in 1909, following a resolution by the Communist Party of Austria. Following this, it was then adopted by the Second Socialist International in Copenhagen in the same year. In 1917, demonstrations marking Women’s Day on March 8th played a key role in the October revolution.
@**meep** wrote:
@rabbitearbandicoot wrote:when is International Men's Day?
19th of November
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Men%27s_Day
I'm with polks on this one, every other day is Man's day, at least in most countries. 
@boris1gary wrote:
@**meep** wrote:
@rabbitearbandicoot wrote:when is International Men's Day?
19th of November
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Men%27s_Day
I'm with polks on this one, every other day is Man's day, at least in most countries.
hmmm......I'm with Ingeborg Breines on this - "This is an excellent idea and would give some gender balance." 
