Georgia’s Independence Day is 26 May, commemorating the 1918 declaration of the Democratic Republic of Georgia.
On 26 May 1918, Georgia declared independence from the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic after that short-lived federation dissolved. The Georgian Democratic Republic established a parliamentary system and existed until the Red Army invasion and Soviet takeover in 1921.
Georgia restored independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, but 26 May remains tied primarily to the earlier 1918 declaration. The date therefore connects modern Georgia with the country’s first independent republic of the twentieth century.
Georgia also observes 9 April as National Unity Day, remembering the 1989 Tbilisi tragedy and the 1991 restoration of independence. These dates are sometimes mixed up because both are central to the country’s modern independence story.