May 4th & 5th - Liberation Day (63 years celebration).

Today and tomorrow we celebrate that it's 63 years ago since we were liberated from the Germans (World War 2). Not only Denmark but also countries in Europe were liberated in May 1945. We - who remembers or have been taught the tradition - remember to light at least one candle in a window (rather more candles) tonight when it's dark outside. But many younger people don't know the tradition because no one has taught it to them. Or they think the tradition is not modern now so they don't light a candle in the night. Just for a few hours.

Do other Europeans have other traditions for the liberation in their countries? Please tell us about them if you got some liberation traditions, thanks!

I wish we had a little candle in our smileys! Then I could have used it in here!

Guest

For you and your countrymen/women, Vigs.

May 4th & 5th - Liberation Day (63 years celebration). Chandelle1

Sorry no smilie but if anyone wants to borrow it, right click and copy the properties and then post.

Thanks, Kal!

I think it's for everybody in Europe because a lot of countries (most of Europe) were occupied of Germany in the 5 bad years from 1940 - 1945.

Many greetings to all my fellow Europeans in here!

Hm...I didn't even know we celabrate...

May 4th & 5th - Liberation Day (63 years celebration). Th_candle

Didn't the Germans occupy Bulgaria, too? Or am I wrong about that?

I have lighted a candle and put it in my bedroom window as I don't have a windowsill in my sittingroom. I have just looked at it and it's ok. You can never be too careful about candles with candlelights, can you?

Vigs Thy girl wrote:: Didn't the Germans occupy Bulgaria, too? Or am I wrong about that?

Yes, they did
I just didn't know that Europe is celbrating. Suspect

I don't know if they have a tradition other places in Europe. But in Denmark we have - but not everybody may know or wants to continue the tradition with the candle(s) in the window(s). That's why I ask all other European members in here what they do or don't do? I mean if they have a tradition or not?

This is a very nice tradition, Vigs. I am a strong believer in using candles to mark special events, and light one from midnight to midnight on the birthdays of friends, when someone is going through a difficult time, and on many other occasions. The light allows me to remember and keep these people and events close to my heart.

You are right about being safe with candles, as a fire would be a tragedy. I always put my candles in a ceramic bowl when I sleep, or if I have to go out, so I know they will not cause any harm.

Regarding the liberation of Denmark and the other countries, it was wonderful when they gained their freedom.

My parents were on opposide sides in the war. My mother was in intelligence work with the British Air Force, and my father was a German Nazi. Thankfully I never absorbed the distorted thoughts he carried with him until his death. It is amazing how German youth was mesmerized by Hitler. My father began with the Hitler Youth as a child, and totally believed in the doctrine. He met Hitler a number of times, and when he talked about him long after the war, he spoke about him being like a "God". It was stunning to me, as I had seen all the pictures and heard from the survivors of the concentration camps.

The time that most touched me was when I sat down one day with a man the same age as I, who had lost most of his family in the Holocaust. We sat down to a meal across the table from each other. He a devout Jew, and I the descendant of a Nazi. We prayed together that such a thing would never again occur, and then we shared a meal and conversation. It was a very humbling experience.

Oh, I didn't know Jen!
I can assure you that I don't hate Germans today. Most of them were forced into the war without being allowed to say: "No, I don't want to go to the war". My mothers father was a grocer and he had to sell some of his goods to the Germans even if he didn't like the Germans. Except for a poor soldier who came from Rostock in eastern part of Germany. Before the war my grandfather used some of his weekends to travel around and referee in different football/soccer matches. And he sometimes went to Rostock to do that. So he got a little "friends" with the poor German soldier who had lost his whole family in the war. He was forced into the war and didn't like to be a soldier. I think my grandfather took a little extra care of him.
But it was a hard time for everybody no matter where in the world they were, I guess.

Some Danes hid other people who had "gone under ground" to hide themselves for Gestapo or the Danes who helped the Germans (even a few Danes were on the German side). They could be Jews, resistance, people who were smuggled into the country (who had jumped out of an aeroplane with a parachute - some of them British or Americans who could help in the resistance to coordinate things) or saboteurs who damaged railroads, buildings and such things to prevent trains with Germans and German equipment to drive around in Denmark and buildings belonging to the Germans by blowing them up. In Copenhagen the French school was hit when the British tried to blow up the Shell House (a headquarter for the Germans). A cousin of my mothers mother lost the whole of her family that day. They lived very close to the school. The young woman was not at home so she got a large chock when she came home and found her parents, sisters and brothers, her husband and their little child dead. That must be the hardest thing to experience.