Lithuania is celebrating State Restoration Day on Sunday with the traditional awarding of national honours, raising of the flags of the three Baltic states, lighting of 16 bonfires and marches.
On Sunday morning, the signatories of the Act of Independence of February 16, 1918, will be honoured at the Rasos Cemetery in Vilnius.
The traditional youth march On the Path of the State of Lithuania will also take place from the Gediminas Monument to Rasos Cemetery. Thousands of schoolchildren and students from all over Lithuania will march dressed in tricolours and other national paraphernalia, stopping along the way at the most important sites of statehood.
A tricolour face-painting station Freedom in Your Face will be set up in central Vilnius.
"Walking along the same streets where the signatories of the Act walked a century ago, we can feel a living connection to the history of our nation. Inspired by the signatories’ determination and dedication, let us feel a deep respect in our hearts, and let their modern attitude towards the state and its people, which was modern for that time, remain a signpost,” said Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas.
Later, a ceremony for the presentation of state awards will take place at the Presidential Palace, the flags of the three Baltic states will be hoisted in Simonas Daukantas Square at noon, and President Gitanas Nausėda will deliver a speech.
Traditionally, Mass will be celebrated at Vilnius Cathedral. For the first time, three Lithuanian cardinals, Rolandas Makrickas, Audrys Juozas Bačkis and Sigitas Tamkevičius, will take part.
There will also be a commemoration at the House of Signatories in Vilnius.
This will be followed by a flower laying ceremony at the monument to Jonas Žemaitis-Vytautas, a signatory of the Declaration of February 16, 1949, chairman of the Council of the Lithuanian Freedom Struggle Movement, a partisan general, on the square in front of the Ministry of Defence.
In the evening, sixteen bonfires will be lit to commemorate the State Restoration Day and a concert will be held on Gedimino Avenue in Vilnius.
A concert will also be held at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic.
The State Restoration Day will also be celebrated in other cities and towns of the country. There will also be flag-raising events, concerts, exhibitions and educational programmes.
In Kaunas, a solemn commemoration and a flag-raising ceremony of the Order of the Knight’s Cross will take place in the garden of the Vytautas the Great War Museum. Students and public organisations will march from the Basilica of the Resurrection of Christ to Unity Square, and concerts will be held at various venues. The celebration will be crowned by a free concert and an award ceremony I Am Part of You, which will be held for the ninth time at Žalgirio Arena.
In Klaipėda, the solemn commemoration will start at noon at the Theatre Square, the Lithuanian tricolour will be raised, and the mayor of Klaipėda, Arvydas Vaitkus, will present the award For the Work of the Year for Klaipėda. Later, the historical flag of Lithuania will be replaced on Mažvydo Avenue. It will be lowered by the soldiers of the Military Police Klaipėda Garrison and raised by the soldiers of the Combat Divers Service of the Special Operations Forces.
In Šiauliai, actors from the Šiauliai Drama Theatre will read poetry by Lithuanian authors on buses, tricolours will be handed out, Lithuanian flags will be raised ceremoniously in the Resurrection Square, and then the Street Theatre will stage an interactive and provocative procession-performance Signatars Going to Take Pictures.
At noon, the flags will also be raised in front of the Panevėžys Municipality, followed by a festive procession from Laisvės Square and a free concert at the Kalnapilio Arena.
Participants of the march in Varniai Regional Park will try to form the record-sized living Gediminas Pillars on Sprūdė Hill.
On February 16, 1918, the Council of Lithuania proclaimed in Vilnius the restoration of an independent Lithuanian state with democratic foundations, with Vilnius as its capital.
The restored independent state existed until June 1940, when it was occupied by the Soviet Union.
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