Today we celebrate the National Day of Romania. It marks an important historical event, namely the Union of Transylvania, Banat, Crişana, Maramureş, Sătmar, Bessarabia and Bukovina with the Kingdom of Romania at 1st of December 1918. It is also called the Great Union Day.
That year, the Great Assembly in Alba Iulia proclaims union through a solemn act in front of a number of 1,228 official delegates representing all 130 electoral circles in the 27 Romanian counties, including bishops, delegates of councilors, cultural society Romanian schools, secondary schools and pedagogical institutes, meetings of craftsmen and university youth. All social strata, all interests and all branches of Romanian activity were represented. In total there were more than 100,000 participants from all the Romanian provinces that will join.
The place of Alba Iulia was not decidided randomly, since it’s the place where Voivode Michael the Brave, in 1599 (on November 1), triumphantly receives the keys of the fortress and, implicitly, he’s recognized as the de facto ruler of Transylvania. In 1600, Michael the Brave conquered Moldova, thus unifying all Romanian provinces and proclaiming himself in a document dated July 6, 1600 as “Lord of Wallachia and Transylvania and the whole country of Moldavia”.
Romania celebrates the National Day on 1 December starting in 1990.
The National Day of Romania is paid tribute to by solemn programs including military parades and ceremonies (at the Triumph Arch and the Statue of the Unknown Soldier in Carol Park in Bucharest, the Statue of Michael the Brave in Campia Turzii and the Alba Carolina Fortress in Alba Iulia), also by various cultural events (conferences, documentary films and concerts) in a Romanian atmosphere with traditional food, music and dance.
This year, more than 3,500 soldiers participated in the National Day at the Triumph Arch in Bucharest, also including military force from Bulgaria, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Replublic of Moldova, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, USA, Turkey and Ukraine.
