International Mountain Day
11 December 2026 — Up on the peak, the sky is closest. Look up!
International Mountain Day is observed every year on 11 December. It was designated by the UN General Assembly in 2002 and has been observed since 2003 to draw attention to the importance of mountains for fresh water, biodiversity and the livelihoods of millions of people. Each year the UN picks a new theme, and organisations, schools and communities around the world hold hikes, exhibitions and talks. Mountains have a special bond with the sky: far from city lights and with thinner, cleaner air, they are ideal places for astronomical observatories. In Bulgaria, one example is the National Astronomical Observatory at Rozhen peak in the Rhodope Mountains, the largest in Southeast Europe. The date is fixed and does not depend on the lunar cycle, but in mid-December the nights are long and, on a clear night,, and the winter sky with Orion and the Pleiades looks especially beautiful from a height.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver star figure made of luminous dots and fine lines, like a constellation drifting across the sky: a snow-capped peak with a tiny observatory on its summit, its dome slowly opening toward the stars
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