Remembrance Day

If you read my other blogs, you will know that yesterday was Dodenherdenking (Remembrance Day), and today is Bevrijdingsdag. Yesterday was a day of contemplation and commemoration, today is a day of celebration. After commemorating those who gave their lives for our freedom, we can now celebrate our freedom.

As Bevrijdingsdag is not a holiday, I will not do much celebrating today, but we did attend a commemoration event yesterday. The event was well attended, probably also because of the participation of local boy and girl scouts (many of their parents also attended). We observed two minutes silence together, in honour of those who gave or lost their lives in wars and peacekeeping missions, but especially in the war, World War II. We sung the Wilhelmus, our national anthem, together. We listened to a speech about freedom by the mayor. We listened to music. And finally the mayor put a flower wreath at the local war monument, followed by a flower tribute by representatives of veteran groups, churches, and other organisations. The scouts each brought a single flower.

My other posts on this topic:

• Dutch traditions: 4 and 5 May, on Trace your Dutch roots
• War graves, on my GYR blog
• Today's Tombstone Tuesday post on my GYR blog