Last night, the main Statehood Day event celebrating Slovenia’s twentieth anniversary of independence took place in the newly remodeled and re-opened Kongresni Trg (Congress Square). We figured it was a must-see for us, and since we couldn’t get a babysitter, it turned into a must-see for the kiddos as well. We loaded them in the strollers for the 9:00pm (21.00) show and joined Cindy and Don and their daughter, Allison, who is here visiting.
We arrived early to get a good view and ran into our Partisan friend, who was all decked out and part of the official contingency. He took time for a picture with us and gave all of us flags and programs in English. We also met a very nice Slovenian woman who stood with us the rest of the evening, helping to keep the kiddos content.
We did luck out with a front-row view from one of the side streets and it was quite an experience. The event kicked off with a procession of presidents and prime ministers of surrounding countries (Austria, Italy, Croatia, and Hungary), followed by a march of current and former members of the military and a symbolic firing of cannons from the castle. Slovenia’s president gave a short commemorative speech and then there was an hour-long show of music and dance.
We had seen various parts of the show during the week as they practiced, but the energy that night in the packed square was spectacular. One of the highlights was a stirring rendition of Kayama (“Gather Together”…Lion King fans will recognize it), in which the singers all sat in the open windows of the old congress building. Another was the finale, in which our new favorite band, Siddharta, performed the song Livingstonov Poslednji Poljub (“Livingston’s Last Kiss”), a sort of rock opera song about inspiration and achievement based on Jonathan Livingston Seagull. During the song, they showed home videos of famous Slovenes as children, and from what we gather, this has become a song of national pride. It’s tough to capture the electricity in writing or even in photos, so we attached some links to YouTube videos below…do yourself a favor and grab a set of headphones and listen. It was enough to give even non-Slovenes, who had no idea what was really going on until after the fact, goosebumps.
The night ended with a fireworks show for the ages from the castle. Celia slept through it, but Rosetta and Sy can’t stop talking about it. We’re afraid they’ll be disappointed at their next 4th of July display.
This has been a really eye-opening piece of being here that maybe we should have given more thought to: the significance of achieving independence and the pride that goes along with that. This is something I know I have taken a bit for granted in the U.S. and will come back with a better appreciation for it. Na dzravje.
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