A little history lesson, "The Velvet Revolution"

Today marked the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution--the end of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. On November 17, 1989 hundreds of thousands of students protested peacefully in the streets of Prague, vying for democracy and freedom from Soviet command. This first demonstration ignited a series of similar protests all throughout Czechoslovakia. On December 29, 1989 the citizens finally prevailed and Vaclav Havel was appointed as president of the first democracy the Czechoslovak Republic had ever seen. It is now known as the "velvet" revolution because it was the most peaceful transition of power from a Soviet state to a democratic one. In order to commemorate the event, the route students took 20 years ago was retraced in a massive march throughout the city, culminating at Narodni Trida with speeches and a concert.

Here are my photos from the march:

 

artwork set up around the city

 

even the trams got into it! this one is decorated with czech flags

 

tons of people waiting around on the streets for the march to pass by palackeho namesti. castle in background.

 

here comes the police escort!

and here comes the march! 

lots of anti-communist, pro-democracy banners and signs

czech flags and no communism!

not sure what this is supposed to be, but we decided it's the devil aka communism.

huge crowd. here is where we decided to jump in and join

yippie! we're part of history

lighting of a mini-hot air balloon in front of the dancing house in honor of vaclav havel (that might not be true..unfortunately everything was in czech. but they said his name loudly and then released the balloon)

balloon flying up, czech flag waving

a baby on a tram jingles keys at people walking by. the jingling of keys is symbolic of the "opening of doors" with democracy. throughout the parade the noise of keys was constant and almost deafening. 

a student walks with a czech flag

a student dyes his hair to make it look like a czech flag

a little boy climbs a light post in front of narodni divadlo (the national theatre)

czech flag banner hangs from narodni divadlo

big flag, drunk boys

peace!

the crowd in front of me

the crowd behind me, national theatre at the end of the street. 

yay for pyrotechnics! 

this was probably the most moving part of the march. czechs sang the czech national anthem as small fireworks lit at the end of the route. it was really inspiring and great. most of the people at the rally actually experienced the revolution and their gratitude was evident through their smiles and proud singing. to me the idea of having to fight for democracy is completely foreign, but these people actually understand life without it and probably have much more of an appreciation for democracy than i have ever had. the whole event was very eye opening.

the tunnel of "demokracie" (democracy, duh)

a man holds a candle and looks at the teleprompter

"mame svobodu!" = we have freedom! 

narodni (national) street with people looking down from the buildings on the march

the concert! we had to push our way for a longgggg time to get this close! 

a little girl sits on her dad's shoulders and waves a czech flag, adorable. 

the end!

ps can you believe that i'll be HOME IN 3.5 WEEKS!??! this sunday marked my LAST full weekend in prague! poland this weekend, belgium the next, vienna/budapest the following and then...LOS ANGELES!