White Flower Day

The White Flower Day or White Chamomile Day charity festival was a charity fundraising event that took place especially in the Russian Empire between 1911 and 1917, usually in spring time.

History

First introduced in Sweden at the beginning of the 20th century and immediately appreciated by the Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and especially by his wife, the empress Alexandra Feodorovna, it was held for the first time in the spring 1911. Mainly focused on helping people with the tuberculosis disease, it saw many people of all class in April and May of every year going around in towns and villages, selling white flowers.
The inner family of Nicholas II also attended it in the years just before the outbreak of the Great War: all of them instated a great bazar in Livadiya, selling hand-made things, while the daughters of the tsar, commonly known as OTMA, went through the streets of the towns of Livadiya and Yalta - especially near the harbor - in 1912 and 1914 to further gather money for the charity cause.
After the 1917 the charity event was not held anymore, until it was revived in the 21st century.