Details:
The Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian associations in Luxembourg are organising a human chain this Sunday 22 September 2019 at 12:00 in Place de l'Europe in Luxembourg-Kirchberg; the event celebrates 30 years since the "Baltic Way" demonstration.
Thirty years ago, on 23 August 2019, two million people from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia held hands to form a 600-kilometre human chain (the Baltic Way or Baltic Chain) that crossed the borders of the Baltic states. The peaceful political demonstration showed the world the determination of these people to regain independence from Soviet rule - in place since the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, signed 50 years earlier on 23 August 1939.
On Sunday 22 September at noon, everyone in Luxembourg is invited to join the Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians to join in a commemoration of this famous and world-changing event. Participants will form their own Baltic Way (or human chain) in Place de l'Europe in Kirchberg (near the Philharmonie). A similar event will be taking place in Brussels the same day. Among various songs and dances hailing from the Baltic states, the Luxembourg communities will unite in a song that symbolises the Baltic Way.
The choice of date (22 September) coincides with that of Baltic Unity Day, a day when the joint pagan Samogitian and Semigallian forces decisively defeated the Livonian Brothers of the Sword in the 1236 Battle of Saule. This year also marks the centenary of the Battle of Cēsis when in June 1919, the Estonians and Latvians together fought a battle that was decisive in the Estonian and Latvian Wars of Independence.
Venue: Place de l'Europe in Luxembourg-Kirchberg
Organiser: Latvieši.lu; Luksemburgi Eesti Selts; Liuksemburgo lietuvių bendruomenė
Price: Free
Reservations: n/a
