March 11^th was the 25^th anniversary of independence for Lithuania. It was a big celebration of national pride. At 12:30, the parade began down the main street in Vilnius, Gedimino Prospektas. Actually, I was rather surprised how small it was. It was a bunch of people carrying flags of the European Union, and then a couple army bands. Then everyone watching the parade just joined in and marched to the Cathedral Square. There was a 200-meter long Lithuanian flag, and it was very participatory, with the public able to hold the flag as it was marched down the street. There were no police barricades or floats, and not much spectacle.

It was the national Independence Day, so I took the day off and was able to join a friend on a visit to the Trakai region. We found an ancient hill that was formerly a castle (a piliakalnis). There was a nice old Russian church nearby. There is plenty of archeological work still to do in this country. The nature of the region is lovely lakes, swamps, and forests. We heard some wild boars.

In the evening I watched the uberpatriotic concert/celebration. It was a chilly night, but there were hundreds of people listening to the famous singers of Lithuania. I noticed that it was mostly male singers, with deep bass voices. There were relatively few women singers; I don’t know why. There were many choruses of people encouraged to participate and shout Lie-Tu-Va, Lithuania. I especially liked the 3 heavy metal guys who were whipping their long hair around while singing a very patriotic Lithuanian song. There were appearances by Olympic gold medalists, TV personalities, and one of the leaders of the independence movement, Vytautas Landsbergis. Boys and Girls were on stage singing in chorus and waving their 3-colored flags. The flag is a huge deal here, as it is the main symbol of independence and freedom.

This is a short video I took with the song ‘Lietuvos Valstybė‘, the Lithuanian nation!  Sorry about the bad sound quality.

At the end, the fireworks display was set up right behind the stage, for maximum effect. I have never been that close to fireworks before, and it was nearly deafening, and the sparks were flying. It seems that lawsuits are not part of the culture.

It will probably be another 25 years before this country is truly a wealthy nation like it’s Nordic cousins, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, but the change has been rapid, and since I first visited in 1989, the year before independence, Lithuania has definitely become a proud modern European nation.