Bevrijdingsdag (Liberation Day)

Yesterday, upon Renske's advice, I went down to the main square (that Dam Square!!!) in Amsterdam for the memorial ceremony. Although the speeches were all in Dutch and I couldn't understand them, the most profound moment was the 2 minutes of silence at 8pm (observed throughout Holland). It was amazing to have thousands of people in the middle of this bustling city and have dead quiet all around you. Today (May 5th) was the party side of things - the day back in 1945 when a bunch of wheat-growing Canadians dropped from the sky and gave the meany German army the ol' boot ("Head east and keep going!").

















Liberation Day (Dutch: Bevrijdingsdag) is celebrated each year on May 5 in the Netherlands to mark the end of the German occupation during the Second World War.

The nation was liberated largely by Canadian troops. On May 5, 1945, the Canadian General Charles Foulkes and the German Commander-in-Chief Johannes Blaskowitz reached an oral agreement on the capitulation of Germany in Hotel De Wereld in Wageningen. One day later, the capitulation document was signed in the auditorium of the Agricultural University located next to the hotel.

After the liberation in 1945 the decision was made that Liberation Day was going to be celebrated every 5 years. Only in 1990, the day was declared a national holiday, on which the liberation would be commemorated and celebrated annually.

On May 4th the Dutch remember the people who have fought for and died during World War II, and wars in general. There is a remembrance gathering in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam and at the National Monument on the Dam Square in Amsterdam. On May 5th the liberation is celebrated and festivals are held in most places.

Source: Wikipedia.