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25 June: what is celebrated today
There are days when the calendar seems to open a window onto the reverse side of everyday life: what sustains the world without applause, what is seen on the skin and what we prefer not to face directly. 25 June brings together commemorations that speak of quiet work, visible identity and collective decisions. One date, three ways of asking ourselves what we consider progress, dignity and care.
Day of the Seafarer
International trade has a discreet soundtrack: steady engines, creaking chains, radios murmuring coordinates. Since 2010, at the initiative of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) at the Manila Conference, 25 June has been dedicated to seafarers, the people who make it possible for essential goods to cross oceans and reach port.
That name encompasses many lives: deck and engine crews, communications, healthcare and administrative staff, as well as those who sustain activity on land in the port environment. The observance recalls that their work takes place amid real risks — storms, incidents, restrictions on crew changes, piracy and criminal networks — and that safety is not an abstract concept, but a daily practice learned through experience.
In 2024, the IMO campaign focused on safety under the slogan “Your best advice for safety at sea”, inviting seafarers to share images of their working environment and concrete preventive actions. The idea is simple and powerful: when the sea does not forgive, shared knowledge can save lives.
World Vitiligo Day
Vitiligo does not hurt or spread, yet it can weigh like a social shadow. This chronic autoimmune skin condition alters pigmentation through the destruction of melanocytes and appears as light patches — macules — on different parts of the body; it can sometimes also change hair colour. It is estimated to affect approximately 2% of the world’s population, and its impact often goes beyond dermatology: it touches self-esteem, the gaze of others and the way a person recognises themselves in the mirror.
The choice of 25 June as an awareness date is linked to Michael Jackson, who had vitiligo from the early 1980s and died on 25 June 2009. The observance seeks to open conversation and understanding: diagnosis is made by a dermatologist, often with a Wood’s lamp, and treatment may include phototherapy, topical medicines or other strategies according to the case, alongside a cross-cutting piece of advice repeated as a mantra of care: protect the skin from the sun.
Talking about vitiligo is also talking about coexistence and respect. When a condition is visible, the surroundings can become judgement. The day insists on normalising, supporting and dismantling stigma: the patches must not become an excuse for discrimination.
World Anti-Bullfighting Day
25 June also stands as a day of rejection of a practice that many voices consider ritualised violence: bullfighting. World Anti-Bullfighting Day seeks to promote its eradication and denounce the animal mistreatment associated with bullfights, advocating laws that prohibit these spectacles and appealing to a public ethic that does not confuse tradition with impunity.
The debate is not new, but it is increasingly visible. Those who promote this observance stress that the animal’s suffering — stress, injuries, torture and death — cannot be disguised as culture or justified as entertainment. From that perspective, celebration consists above all of a concrete act: not supporting the spectacle and backing animal-protection initiatives.
At heart, the date poses an uncomfortable, necessary question: what kind of society do we want to be when we look away from pain? On 25 June it responds with an invitation to review customs in the light of contemporary values.