Today marks the 80th anniversary of the day of liberation of Denmark (except Bornholm that switched out German occupation for Soviets instead) and the Netherlands in ww2. Happy Liberation Day! I’m curious to hear how (and when) you, in your countries, celebrate or commemorate the day of victory/liberation.
Here, it is more of a commemoration than celebration nowadays. The commemoration starts already in the evening of the 4th, where we put candles in the windows or on balconies. This commemorates the message of surrender sent on the BBC already that evening, after which people tore down their blackout blinds and burnt them and put lights in their windows. The commemorations continue today at events hosted officially or by historical associations. These are often held at memorials, where people lay down wreaths and light candles. Beyond the flowers and lights, we hold speeches and sing songs of resistance, perseverance, and hope. Some events also have attending embassy staff from the allied nations. Today is one of the recognised flag days, and the media will run a bunch of stories about the occupation and liberation
Addendum: I am aware that many places had German occupation taken over by a Soviet one instead. But I’m still curious to hear, if you still celebrate the end of ww2 in your country (and how, if so)
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Netherlands:
4th of may we remember the fallen of WW2, lots of documentaries about the war, the deportation of Jews, stories of survivors on tv & radio and at 20:00 there is 2 minutes of silence nationwide.
The king and all kinds of politicians assemble in Amsterdam to lay flowers in remembrance of the fallen before the 2 minutes of silence.
5th of may we celebrate our liberation from WW2 with free festivals in all of the big cities. Once every five years it’s a nationwide holiday as well.
The only thing that kind of bugs me is that we have a lot of immigrants who also experienced war (Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Rwanda, Syria etc) and personally the 4th of may should include all people who have experienced loss and share their stories. Not only the Dutch people from 80 years ago. Wars are still happening and giving everyone in our country a place to remember their fallen on the same day doesn’t dilute its meaning, it enforces that war never fucking ends. We don’t have a monopoly on suffering and we should stop making it an exclusive event. But somehow that’s a very unpopular opinion over here.
It’s not. The last Germans were driven out from Finland on 25th April, but this has not become a public celebration. Instead, 9th of May is Europe Day, not a public holiday but another flag flying day. There is some sort of a celebration but it appears to contain mostly political speeches.
Estonia.
We were “liberated” into almost 50 years of Soviet occupation so the end of WW2 is not much celebrated here.
The Victory Day is a major holiday with flags everywhere, a grand military parade and each veteran getting a personal congratulation card from a local official. It was probably the only holiday after New Year that was actually celebrated by the entire country.
However, it’s all been going downhill in the last 10-15 years. Actual veterans are dying off, and propaganda shifted the overall mood from “thank our grandpas for saving us” to a militarist/jingoist “fuck yeah, we are strong, we can repeat it if anyone wants”.
Last couple years were especially fucked up for obvious reasons. There isn’t even enough military equipment for a parade that doesn’t look like a joke, not that I wanted to see it anyway. And any defacement of the official Victory Symbols gets you jailed for “justifying Nazism”.
25th of April. In every town there is an official commemoration (mayor’s speech, laurel wreath to the monument to the fallen, the wind band plays the silence tap/the national anthem). Usually before/after the official ceremony there’s a march where people and associations take part. The wind band plays Bella ciao, Fischia il vento and other Resistance songs. In some places the march is an independent event organized by partisans’ associations, political parties and trade unions.
People on the left take part enthusiastically to the march, proudly waving flags, wearing red scarves or other symbols and repeating anti-fascist songs and slogans.
People on the right have usually a reaction that goes from “I’d celebrate the 25th of April if the Left didn’t make the day “divisive”” to “we should also remember the poor Fascist guys that got killed by partisans”
Yes: the 25th of april is divisive and it divides people from filthy rats who should remember that in place Loreto there’s still a lot of free space.
4th of April used to be “Liberation Day” in the Communist Era. It’s no longer celebrated since what happened wasn’t exactly liberation.
well there’s a big parade in Pilsen, the rest was “liberated” by the soviets, not much to celebrate there
but 8th of may is a public holiday for the end of ww2
Official national holiday is 8th of May. However there are various commemorations and celebrations before and after 8th of May because the country was liberated by various, even previously opposing forces, and at different dates, so some local events such as liberation of Pilsen happen earlier than Liberation of Prague (which was, contrary to official tankie propaganda, liberated earlier than 9th of May by Soviets).
Apart from the convoy of WWII reenactors in Pilsen? Hardly. I’ve just looked up events in Prague, and there’s almost nothing. There’s some kind of event in Wenceslas Square, but the programme looks sketchy at best.
Like this and this
Our liberation day from fascism was in 25th April 1974. We celebrated 50 years last year, this year it was 50yrs of the first free elections (which happened one year later in 1975).
You mean after WW2 ? It would be June 1989 and there are some TV programs, some official celebrations, etc.
We celebrate German Unity Day on 3 October as a public holiday. It commemorates German Reunification in 1990 when the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany.
And this year (2025) Berlin celebrates the anniversary of the liberation from National Socialism and the end of the Second World War on 08.05.2025. But thats a special occassion for the 80th anniversary.
Portugal wasn’t involved in WWII so there’s no related celebration. There’s no invasion or occupation of Portugal by a foreign country in living memory – the last time that happened was with Napoleon – so I’d say there’s nothing exactly like it.
Greece celebrates the refusal of dictator Metaxas to allow Mussolini’s troops to freely march into Greece from the albanian border. That’s the “Όχι” /’o.chi/ (no) day on October 28th instead.
Why not the end of the war and the Liberation from nazi occupation instead? Good question 🙂
My country was never liberated, a dictator who was a friend of Mussolini and Hitler continued to rule for 40 years, when his hand-picked successor died in bed, he put on a farce together with his CIA colleagues to transition from that dictatorship to a pseudo-democracy, the people who fought for that dictator are still buried in gutters and mass graves, when you ask about them they answer that history should not be removed, that it is better to forget
some of the anti-wokes, Z-lovers and tankies hold a car parade where they wave russian and soviet flags
Its weird that yes, its observed in the UK on the 8th: but you best believe there’s no bank holiday for it. There’s more celebrations than usual this year since its a round number but usually its fairly low key.
In Sweden its known of, but not in the slightest anything more than a normal day. Same for remembrance sunday in November. 200 years of neutrality (until joining NATO last year ofc) means its not a big thing ofc.
Military parade for the regiments of the Commonwealth armed forces for V-E Day, and street parties.
The Norwegian liberation day is 8th of May. It’s celebrated by ceremonies around the country on important places and monuments particularly in connection with WW2. That means speeches, flowers and other acts of honour, especially towards remembering the ones lost during the war, but also other wars. It’s become a general veteran day here.
It’s not. We were neutral.
Well, at the time Salazar decreed a 3 day National Mourning period for Hitler.
In Germany we didn’t have that, my Czech workmate shortly seemed surprised. Spain with its dictatorship until 75 either. So, that makes me the lucky guy who never had to be or never was liberated.
We were never occupied so we don’t have a liberation day, nor do we celebrate victory day since we fought against the USSR, so it would be kind of stupid to celebrate it considering we to this day firmly hold the belief that we were the good guys, despite our joint war against the USSR with Germany.
We celebrate Veteran’s day on the 27th of April, which is the date when WW2 ended for us (When we pushed the Nazis out of northern Finland) This is about the end of war and veterans, not our “victory” against Germany, since Finland didn’t even want to fight her former allies, but was forced to in accordance with the peace deal signed with the USSR. Despite the fact that Nazi Germany was quite literally the definition of evil, it’s still seen as somewhat of a stain on our country’s legacy that we turned against our once allies.
Then there’s memorial day for the fallen soldiers on the 3rd sunday of May, and i don’t know why that day specifically was chosen.
Then there’s 13th of March for the anniversary of the end of the winter war, which isn’t an official holiday but still kind of is.
Then there’s of course independence day on December 6th, which in Finland is less of a party and more a day when we remember the heroism and sacrifice of our forefathers. In general quite of a somber celebration of independence.
Overall we have quite a few holidays that are related to WW2, and basically all share the same “celebrations”, which is remembering our heroes.
it is not, same as the Estonia answer, the “victory” quite literally was an option between Hitler and Stalin, there were no winners.
9th of May was widely celebrated by russians, which to this day has never sat well between them and latvians. 3 years ago after war in Ukraine started we took down the “victory monument” which often was the place of meeting for all the vatniks. Should’ve been done way faster.
Instead we celebrate 4th of May, which is declaration of independence restoration (1990) day, a national holiday alongside the independence day of 18th of November.
It used to be rather glossed over until 2022, then due to the invasion of Ukraine we’ve started noting it more for each year. Really put some perspective on how much we should value our freedom and liberties.
In Spain it is a normal day, except in the Community of Madrid (I think, if not only in Madrid capital) which is one of its holidays.
There are hardly any reminders of the usual… mix of politicking and “editorial and content management.” In addition to the fact that politicking always creates some shitty controversy with them at the epicenter.
It’s two days before, May 2, and we especially remember a lot about our French neighbors, the runt who caused trouble throughout Europe and was crowned under their noses as emperor nothing more and nothing less and of course our felon as we know him who laid out the red carpet for what ended up happening, Ferdinand VII. 😅