Holy Cross Day (Exaltation of the Cross) · Eyd-e Bozorgdasht-e Salib-e Moqaddas

Culture of origin: Christian · Cultural

Holiday sources: Australia (national) · Canada (federal) · Christianity · Eastern Orthodox (new calendar) · France · Germany (nationwide) · United Kingdom (England and Wales) · United States (federal)

Holy Cross Day honours the cross on which Jesus was crucified: the Catholic Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and the Anglican and Lutheran Holy Cross Day. It goes back to the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in 335, built where Helena, mother of Constantine, was said to have found the cross. When Khosrow II's army took Jerusalem in 614, it carried off the relic believed to be the True Cross; the Byzantine emperor Heraclius brought it back in 628–629, after his victory over the Sasanians.