Happy Europe Day!

[markrich]

I guess if we had planned ahead we could have had a gallery of images to celebrate but best wishes to anyone on this fair continent.

Personally I plane to order a new Bessa R and Industar 61 today and enjoy some cold beer from Lithuania, Poland and Germany later this evening.

Have fun!

Marky😀

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Marky,

You know, I'd never even HEARD of Europe Day, despite being an enthusiastic supporter of the EU. Yesterday was VE day (a public holiday in France, though not, as far as I can see, in Germany -- I was in Germany last year on May 8) and May 9 is Victory Day in Russia (same war), but Europe Day (changed from the 5th to the 9th in 1985) was a new one on me. Then I found out that VE Day is the 5th in Denmark and the Netherlands...

I believe that next Monday is a bank holiday here in France too (Pentecost) so celebrating Europe Day would have made a VERY long week-end.

On the other hand, celebrating a day of cooperation probably makes more sense than celebrating a war or a religious festival...

Cheers,

Roger

 

[markrich]

Hello Roger! Never thought I would get an comment from you. Your piece in Amateur Photographer is keen reading for me. Thank you for those printed words most weeks 🙂

Europe Day doesn't seem to get the publicity it did earlier at the start of the 90's when all things EU were top of the news, but its a worthy celebration of something good. Diversity in Union 🙂 One of the EU's main problems is it's lack of marketting. If they actively pursued a more public persona and let people know about Europe Day, how the Union works and what it does, there would be less Eurosceptic nonsense from those who know less than they claim. Still one day they may advertise this day more!

Planning to spend the evening with some Romanian, Polish, German and Estonian friends as we work our way around Europe with some beer 🙂

I lived in Russia for some time and they do like their festivals, especially some of the Soviet era ones. Victory Day there is very important for them given recent memory and the number of people they lost. More than 20 million is not a number most people can understand because it's so vast, especially in the west of Europe.

One day I hope to find someone to help me put together a book about all of Europe in photographs. Showing the peoples and places which are still wonderfully diverse despite our common cultures. Ah, the dreams....