Programmer's Day, also known as the Day of the Programmer, is a professional day that is celebrated in
Russian Federation
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
on the 256th (
hexadecimal
In mathematics and computing, the hexadecimal (also base-16 or simply hex) numeral system is a positional numeral system that represents numbers using a radix (base) of 16. Unlike the decimal system representing numbers using 10 symbols, hexa ...
100th, or the 2
8th) day of each year (September 13 during
common year
A common year is a calendar year with 365 days, as distinguished from a leap year, which has 366. More generally, a common year is one without intercalation. The Gregorian calendar (like the earlier Julian calendar) employs both common years ...
s and on September 12 in
leap year
A leap year (also known as an intercalary year or bissextile year) is a calendar year that contains an additional day (or, in the case of a lunisolar calendar, a month) added to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical year or s ...
s).
The number
256
Year 256 ( CCLVI) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Claudius and Glabrio (or, less frequently, year 1009 ''Ab urbe condi ...
(2
8) was chosen because it is the number of distinct values that can be represented with a
byte
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...
, a value well known to
programmer
A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software.
A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...
s. 256 is also the highest power of two that is less than 365, the number of days in a common year.
Official recognition
This particular day was proposed by Valentin Balt and Michael Cherviakov (aka htonus), employees of Parallel Technologies (a software company). As early as 2002, they tried to gather signatures for a petition to the
government of Russia
The Government of Russia exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister, the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers. It has its legal basis in the Constitution of the Russia ...
to recognize the day as the official Day of the Programmer.
On July 24, 2009, the
issued a draft of an executive order on a new
professional holiday, Day of the Programmer.
On September 11, 2009,
President of Russia
The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...
Dmitry Medvedev
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev ( rus, links=no, Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪdˈvʲedʲɪf; born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been serving as the dep ...
signed the decree.
Criticism
Due to
Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
, members of the Ukrainian IT community have proposed to boycott this holiday.
Chinese Programmer's Day
In China, the programmer's day is October 24, which has been established for many years.
The date was chosen because it can also be written as 1024, which is equal to 2
10 and corresponds to the Ki
binary prefix
A binary prefix is a unit prefix for multiples of units. It is most often used in data processing, data transmission, and digital information, principally in association with the bit and the byte, to indicate multiplication by a power of& ...
. It is also a consistent date regardless of leap years.
See also
*
World Information Society Day
World Telecommunication and Information Society Day is an list of minor secular observances#May, international day proclaimed in November 2006 by the International Telecommunication Union Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya, Turkey, to be celebra ...
*
System Administrator Appreciation Day
System Administrator Appreciation Day, also known as Sysadmin Day, SysAdminDay, is an annual event created by system administrator Ted Kekatos. The event exists to show appreciation for the work of sysadmins and other IT workers. It is celebrat ...
*
Secretary's Day
Administrative Professionals Day (also known as Secretaries Day or Admin Day) is a day observed yearly in a small number of countries. It is not a public holiday in any of them. In some countries, it falls within Administrative Professionals Week ...
References
Sources
*{{Cite Russian law
, ru_entity=Президент Российской Федерации
, ru_type=Указ
, ru_number=1034
, ru_date=11 сентября 2009 г.
, ru_title=О дне программиста
, ru_effective_date=11 сентября 2009 г.
, ru_published_in="Российская Газета", №172
, ru_published_date=15 сентября 2009 г.
, ru_url=http://www.consultant.ru/online/base/?req=doc;base=LAW;n=91490
, en_entity=
President of the Russian Federation
The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...
, en_type=Decree
, en_number=1034
, en_date=September 11, 2009
, en_title=On the Day of the Programmer
, en_effective_date=September 11, 2009
, en_url=https://www.elektrolab.eu/blog/dnes-je-svetovy-den-programatorov
Observances in Russia
September observances
Autumn events in Russia
Computing culture