how to say “national mourning” in Hebrew

אֵבֶל לְאֻמִּי

Today Jews around the world commemorate the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in ancient times, as well as all the other great tragedies of Jewish history.

The term for national mourning is אבל לאומי

.

For example:

תשעה באב הוא יום של אבל לאומי.

Tisha B’Av (the ninth of the Jewish month of Av) is a day of national mourning.

The word אבל

means mourning, so that to mourn is the reflexive-intensive verb להתאבל.

לאומי

means national. You may recognize this word from the name of the Israeli bank – בנק לאומי – Bank Leumi.