Today marks the 99th anniversary of the Grand Union Day of Romania. It is our national holiday, and it celebrates the unification of all romanian provinces to the Kingdom of Romania, following World War I. These provinces that united with the rest of the country were Transylvania, the land known to the world as the land of Dracula, but also the lands of Basarabia, which now is the Republic of Moldova, a territory lost after World War II, which will one day reunite, the region of Bucovina, now part of Ukraine, and the Cadrilater, or Southern Dobruja, now belonging to Bulgaria.

December 1st replaced the previous national holiday, which was held on the 10th of May, which marked the Declaration of Independence from the Ottoman Empire, in 1877, while also celebrating the day king Carol the 1st set foot in the country in 1866. Following World War II, the national holiday was set to the 23rd of August, marking the day the communist regime took power over the country. Once Romania became a sovereign democratic state again, after the 1989 revolution, December 1st became our national holiday once more.

As you can see in the image to the right, the territories in green were lost to soviet Ukraine and Bulgaria, as eastern Europe was divvied up by the the communist U.S.S.R.. Following the anti-communist revolution wave, which ended on December 25th with the execution by firing squad of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu (the last ever execution prior to abolishing the death penalty in Romania), part of these territories would form the sovereign state of Moldova (marked on the map by the red dotted line), or remain in the democratic states modern-day Ukraine and Bulgaria.

Now, this day is celebrated yearly in Bucharest, the capital of my country, and in the city of Alba Iulia where the Great Union was ratified by king Carol the 1st, by a massive military parades. In Bucharest, the convoys parade through Kiseleff Boulevard and roll under the Arc de Triomphe, raised in 1992 as an homage to the heroes of the Independence War of 1877 and of World War I.

Military parade, commentary by news agency Digi24 (hopefully I'll update the post with an english subbed version if someone posts such a version)

Today's parade consisted of over 3,000 military personnel. Alongside them, allied battalions from Poland, Moldova, Slovakia, USA, Great Britain, Spain marched under the monument, as well as small formal military envoys from Italy and Germany. This personnel consisted of units from different wings of the military, including, infantry, cavalry, air force, navy, border patrol, logistics, communications, special operations and counter-terrorism divisions. Several gendarmerie diving, rapid response, riot dispersal, and peace keeping units also took part. Several civilian branches of the police and emergency services also marched.

All of these governmental bodies also put different operational vehicles on display. Among them were radar systems, all sorts of armoured personnel carriers, water cannons, bikes, boats and aircraft. The highlights was the romanian main battle tank, the TR-85M1, an improved version of the soviet T-55, the LAROM Multiple Launcher Rocket System, all sorts of specialized support vehicles based on the HumVee platform, romanian IAR 99 aircraft, C27 Spartan and C130 Hercules transport aircraft, as well as F18 multi-purpose aircraft, and F16 and Mig 21 Lancer interceptors.

Hope you enjoy the parade! Before I end, I leave you with the romanian anthem below!

Sorry for posting so rarely, I am not at home, so researching and editing is not quite as easy. I also celebrated my name day yesterday, Andrei (Andrew), and alcohol was involved. In any case, hope you enjoy this post celebrating our liberation. Share your thoughts below, along with any feedback you might have. It is greatly appreciated!

Thank you for reading, and keep on steemin'!

(clicking any image will take you to its source)