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The 9th of May is Victory Day and everyone is sporting these orange and black ribbons to celebrate. The ribbon is meant to resemble the Order of St George awarded for bravery in combat:

In the square right outside the Hermitage (ie. where I am every day) they have set up a big stage for Saturday’s celebration.  100s of soldiers have been practicing their marches, chants and formations and they have even run through shooting the cannons.  I appreciate that they want to get everything just right for the holiday, but I don’t appreciate the cannon shots right outside of my office.

Seeing the soldiers makes me go a bit batty.  I get giggly, giddy and can’t help commenting on their fine uniforms.  They all look so nice in their rows, very imposing in large groups.  I think I will enjoy the celebration on Saturday.

To remind the country of the meaning of the 9th TV channels have been showing WWII movies all day and night.  I have cought bits of some that are actually quite poinent and beautiful.  Others have just been blood, gore and guns.

I wonder when this holiday will loose active appreciation.  How much longer will people remember this victory and choose to celebrate it with grand banners?  What does the holiday mean to the younger generations?  Children of the war are still alive and thus there is still a direct connection to the suffering, strife and joy of that time, but how will the memory live on?  Do younger people feel obligated to celebrate, or do they appreciate what the day ment to so many and how it changed their country?  I will ask.

For more information about the 9ths’s significance go here:

Victory Day

На Русском:

День Победы

ADDED LATER:

I asked a young Russian about the holiday and whether or not she thinks the memory will fade and she claimed that the celebration was actually becoming grander and grander every year.  The holiday is becoming more fantastic.  The horrors of war are turning into myth, legend and, when there is a little room for the imagination, a little room for elaboration, people become enamered with a fantasy.  She saw a parallel in Christmas.  Christ died how many years ago?  And Christmas is still celebrated.  It is the spirit that is important, not the cold facts.  The less familiar you are with something the more romantic it seems.