The Luxembourg Adventures Tour Group has announced that it will participate in a “big weekend” of activities centred around the Octave (Oktav) in the Grand Duchy from Friday 23 to Sunday 25 May 2025.

Kevin Wester, owner/operator of the Luxembourg Adventures tour company, will lead a 68-strong group in what he described as “the most exciting tour I’ve ever planned”. The activities will coincide with the 400th Jubilee of Our Lady of Luxembourg, US Memorial Day at the Luxembourg American Cemetery and the “Celebrating and Renewing the Luxembourg-American Experience” exhibition and banquet.

Mr Wester noted that: “All these events help my American Luxembourger tour participants to see the unique bond between our countries, even in these times of political change. It also becomes our opportunity to renew those ties of friendship and family so that the Luxembourg-American experience might be perpetuated for generations to come.”

On Friday 23 May 2025, a gala dinner event, “Celebrating and Renewing the Luxembourg-American Experience”, will take place at the Parc Hotel Alvisse in Luxembourg-Dommeldange starting at 18:00. The event is expected to be a celebration of Luxembourg-US relationships and will feature an exhibition, showcasing various Luxembourg-American organisations, before and after dinner. An exhibition of the historic 1892, 1966 and 2024 Luxembourg-American Octave processional banners will also form part of the evening. Tickets for the event cost €150 (for Luxembourg guests). For further information and to register (before Friday 9 May 2025), see https://mailchi.mp/b2142ad4f398/youre-invited-celebrate-the-luxembourg-american-experience.

On Saturday 24 May 2025, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, Archbishop of Luxembourg, will bless the new 2024 Luxembourg-American banner, during the 138th Octave Mass offered for the living and deceased members of the Luxembourg-American community, at the Chapelle du Glacis (Glacis Chapel) in Luxembourg-Limpertsberg at 10:00. This Mass is open to the general public.

This annual Octave Mass dates to 1888. At that time, Nicholas Gonner, publisher of the Luxemburger Gazette in Dubuque, Iowa, raised funds from the Luxembourg-American community to establish an endowment fund, so that an annual Mass for American Luxembourgers could be celebrated in Luxembourg during the Octave. A statue of Our Lady of Luxembourg, from the Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey, Ohio, will be on the altar during the Mass. Luxembourg immigrant, Fr. Joseph Gloden, created this first Marian shrine in the United States in 1875. The statue will represent the spiritual and cultural links between Luxembourg and the United States.

In the afternoon of Saturday 24 May, the United States Memorial Day Celebration will take place at the Luxembourg American Cemetery in Luxembourg-Hamm, against the backdrop of more than 5,070 graves of American soldiers who gave their lives during World War II. The memorial event will start at 14:00.

On Sunday 25 May 2025, the Pontifical Mass for the closing of the 400th Jubilee Octave of Our Lady of Luxembourg at the Notre-Dame Cathedral will begin at 10:30, followed by the closing procession through the streets of Luxembourg City, starting at 15:00. Members of the Luxembourg Adventures Tour Group will carry the 1892, 1966 and the new 2024 Luxembourg American banner in the closing procession.

HOM