Preparations for the National Day
Romanias National Day, December 1, is celebrated both in the country and abroad.
Mihai Pelin, 29.11.2017, 13:37
After the 1989 anti-communist Revolution, December 1 officially became the National Day of Romania, which is celebrated by both the Romanians living in the country and abroad. Celebrations and events to mark the national holiday are held at the Romanian diplomatic missions abroad and on theatres of operations where Romanian military are participating in international missions.
Bucharest will host several concerts and shows, some of them free of charge. Performing on stage will be popular singers and bands such as Loredana, Smiley, Andra, Direcţia 5, Bere Gratis, Voltaj, Paula Seling, Marcel Pavel, Iris, Gheorghe Zamfir and Ştefan Hruscă. The highlight of the day will undoubtedly be the traditional military parade, which will be opened by helicopters of the National Defence Ministry. The aircraft will fly the Romanian national flag over Bucharest’s sky. Taking part in the parade will also be structures of the Romanian Intelligence Service and of the Interior Ministry.
An overall number of 3,500 military will be parading, alongside 50 aircraft and over 300 fighting vehicles. This year, alongside the Romanian military, 300 troops from allied and partner countries will also take part in the parade, namely from the US, Canada, Turkey, Ukraine, France and Germany. Furthermore, the Romanian public will have the opportunity to see, for the first time, four armoured vehicles belonging to the Polish forces, dispatched to the Multinational Brigade in Craiova (southern Romania), and the famous F-18 fighters operated by the Canadian forces and stationed at the Mihail Kogălniceanu base in south-eastern Romania.
Just like every year, the military will pass under the Triumphal Arch in Bucharest, with Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis being expected to attend this grandiose event. Another important military parade will take place in Alba-Iulia. 1,500 troops with military equipment, aircraft, helicopters and armoured vehicles will be parading in that central Romanian town.
The Romanian PM Mihai Tudose, the Speakers of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Senate, Liviu Dragnea and Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, respectively, have made public their intention to attend the military parade in Alba Iulia. This is the town where the union of the Romanian territories was proclaimed 99 years ago, on December 1, 1918, thus sanctioning the setting up of the Romanian unitary nation state, by bringing under Bucharest’s authority all provinces with a Romanian majority population, which had been part of the neighbouring multi-national empires. Thus, all Romanian territories united in the wake of WWI, in an extremely favourable geopolitical context.
Under the peace treaties signed afterwards, the Union was recognised by Europe’s big powers. The symbolic moment completing the process was the crowning of King Ferdinand I and of Queen Marie as monarchs of united Romania, also in Alba Iulia, in 1922.
