STORY: The fate of the “Big Day of Prayer” was sealed. The Danish parliament passed a bill on Tuesday in Copenhagen to abolish it as a public holiday. The quite controversial step is intended to finance higher defense spending. The new Danish government had said the deletion would lead to higher tax revenues. These should then be used to increase the military budget in the course of the Ukraine war. Such an increase in defense spending was also decided on Tuesday. The country is aiming to achieve the two percent target required by NATO by 2030, which would then be three years earlier than previously planned. The Great Day of Prayer is a Christian holiday that falls on the fourth Friday after Easter and dates back to 1686. However, trade unions, representatives of the opposition and economists questioned the effect of its abolition in advance.