Independence Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina

What it marks

Independence Day is a national holiday of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the two entities that make up the country. It falls on 1 March and looks back to 1992, when the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, then a federal unit inside the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, became a state in its own right. That April the European Community recognised the country as independent. The observance lasts a single day and belongs to the Federation rather than to the whole country. Republika Srpska, the second entity, keeps a different Independence Day, on 9 January.

How the date was set

The date comes from a referendum held on 28 February and 1 March 1992. Voters were asked whether they wanted a sovereign and independent Bosnia-Herzegovina, one in which Muslims, Serbs, Croats and other peoples would live as equal citizens and nations. Muslims and Bosnian Croats supported the idea in large numbers, while most Bosnian Serbs stayed away. Turnout was 63.6 per cent, and 99.7 per cent of those voting chose independence. That was short of the two-thirds of all eligible voters which the constitution required. Parliament accepted the result on 6 March. On 28 February 1995 the Federation's parliament named 1 March as the holiday.

How it is observed

Independence Day lasts one day and is kept only in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Sarajevo, the capital, the memorial known as the eternal flame has been shown carrying the national flag on the holiday; a photograph from 2019 records it that way. The Federation's parliament both created the holiday and chose its date in 1995, and the first Independence Day followed on 1 March 1995. Elsewhere in the country the date is not a public holiday. Republika Srpska passes it by, keeping 9 January as its own Independence Day.

A contested date

Not everyone reads 1 March the same way. Most Bosnian Serbs connect it to an attack in Sarajevo on 1 March 1992, when a wedding procession of Serbs was fired on. The groom's father was killed and a Serbian Orthodox priest was wounded. Many Bosnian Serbs regard those deaths and injuries as the first of the Bosnian War. Republika Srpska marks the day as one of grievance. Milorad Dodik, its president, has said the date belongs to the Bosniak people and is not a holiday kept in Republika Srpska.

How Independence Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina is kept

It is a one-day public holiday, and it belongs to the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina rather than to the whole country. Inside the Federation the date is kept each 1 March, the day the 1992 referendum closed. In Sarajevo the eternal flame, a memorial in the capital, has carried the national flag on the holiday. The Federation's parliament created the observance in 1995, and the first marking came that same year. In Republika Srpska there is no official observance of the date, and the entity keeps its own Independence Day on 9 January.

When and where

It falls every year on 1 March. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina fixed that date on 28 February 1995, choosing the day in 1992 on which the independence referendum ended. The holiday was first kept on 1 March 1995, and it lasts a single day.

It is kept in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the two entities of the country, and its strongest marking is in Sarajevo, where the eternal flame carries the national flag. Republika Srpska, the other entity, does not observe it, keeping 9 January as its own Independence Day instead.

What Independence Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina means

For those who keep it, the day stands for the 1992 vote in favour of a state of equal citizens and nations, and for the country's recognition as independent that April. For most Bosnian Serbs the same date carries a different memory: the shooting of a Serb wedding procession in Sarajevo in 1992, which many regard as the first casualties of the war. Republika Srpska therefore treats 1 March as a day of grievance rather than a celebration.

Questions people ask about Independence Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina

See also

VechornytsiEvening gatherings of Ukrainian youth, with songs, jokes, games and winter divinationKoloA South Slavic circle dance of linked hands, kept at weddings and gatheringsSerbian ChristmasA three-day midwinter observance focused on oak logs, floor straw and family gatheringsOjkanjeA throat-shaking style of folk singing from Croatia's Dinaric highlands

Good reading and sources

• Independence Day (Bosnia and Herzegovina) on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.