Freedom Day is a public holiday in South Africa celebrated on 27 April.

[1] On the first commemoration of the holiday, President Nelson Mandela addressed Parliament:[3] As a new dawn ushered in this day, the 27th of April 1994, few of us could suppress the welling of emotion, as we were reminded of the terrible past from which we come as a nation; the great possibilities that we now have; and the bright future that beckons us.

And so we assemble here today, and in other parts of the country, to mark a historic day in the life of our nation.

The day reminds South Africans of the immeasurable sacrifices made by individuals and nations to break them away from the chains of unjust segregation by a selected few.

It is a day that not only marks the emancipation of South Africans from apartheid but also returned their essential human rights in 1994.