Witold Pilecki, second lieutenant of the reserves of the 26th Greater Poland Cavalry Regiment at the head of the Independence Day parade

The Independence Day was a national holiday celebrated on 11 November to commemorate Poland regaining its independence in 1918. At the beginning, the November date was not the only one celebrated as the anniversary of rebirth of the Second Republic, but in the course of time, the celebrations of 11 November became more and more widespread. A 1926 memorandum of the Minister of Internal Affairs recommended organizing ceremonial celebrations on that day, but formally 11 November was established as a national holiday by the Act of 1937.