Does your country celebrate the WWII Victory Day? Russia celebrates it on May 9th, which is tomorrow. We hold a big parade with aircraft and infantry marching through the streets. Before the parade the government spends billions of dollars to clear up the sky, so that there's no rain. There's never been rainy on May 9th in Moscow because of that. The government also rearranges the holidays throughout the year so that there's usually at least half a week of holidays on May 9th. They do it with other holidays as well, it's very rare when we get just "one day off" (if we do it's on friday). Russia also celebrates May 1st - Labor Day. The chunk of free days spent during this period is usually on cleaning up your country house. And then everyone (family, friends, whoever else invited) come there on May 9th to eat shashlik and celebrate the Victory Day.
Do you have any family stories about war? Were your [grand(grand)]parents at war? Did your family tree suffer any losses?
>Do you have any family stories about war? Were your [grand(grand)]parents at war? Both of my granddads were in the war. They both dead now. Was in a family gathering were this old guy came and he wanted to thank my grandfather for saving his life. He told that they were in a foxhole together when particularly vicious artillery barrage hit. The old man flipped the fuck out when the barrage wouldn't stop and tried leaving the foxhole so my grandfather knocked him out cold saving his life.
Thomas Baker
4 may is remembrance day 5 may is liberation day
Brody Powell
We celebrate on the day Italy declared war on us. So we celebrate the start of the war, not the end of it.
Christopher Lopez
Yes
David Lopez
My family grandgrandparents went through war while my grandparents were under 1 year old. My grandgrandfather (grandmother mother line) died on the front 1 months after my grandmother was born. His wife (grandgrandmother) worked at a factory at the time and they were all evacuated and the factory got reworked into an ammo factory, mostly with anti-tank ammo. My grangrandmother got "hired" back and they had 14 hour long shifts there. During the Battle of Moscow the grandgrandparent's house was bombed, and they were given a room by the government (because the grandgrandmother worked at the factory). In that room lived 3 women, all of them worked at factories or hospitals, and all of them had 14 hour shifts. In that same room also lived all their kids (there were 4 more aside from my grandmother). Whoever of 3 was at home had to look out for all the kids. It was usually like this: one was sleeping, one was working, and one was at home taking care of kids. And it all shifted back and forth all the time. On the roof of that house there were men (those unable to fight, disabled, etc) patrolling and looking out for fire grenades (forgot the name of it). Sometimes the airplanes wouldn't randomly bomb houses but instead try to burn them with those grenads. So the current patrolling group had to quickly drop them down from the roof. All windows were always sealed so that the airplanes that pass by wouldn't be able to tell whether the house is populated or not, they wouldn't be able to see the lights in the windows. Also at the end of the Battle of Moscow most of the people were sent west of Moscow to dig down a trench - a few kilometers long pit. They were doing it to defend against the upcoming tanks. My grandgrandmother was also there, digging the dirt, while hoping that her kid wouldn't get randomly bombed.
Justin Jenkins
On 4 may you have remembrance events everywhere, where we put flowers on graves. Have a national 2 minutes of silence. And you have veteran marches, where Dutch, English, Canadian and American troops march.
My dads father was in the Army doing something I’m not sure of, wish I could’ve met him Great grandad somewhere on my mom’s side was a B-24 ball turret gunner that bombed Romania’s oil fields
Juan Howard
Great-grandfather hid Russian soldiers in his barn and they regularly stole his produce for making samogonka. He didn't received any reparations.
