On March 3, Bulgaria celebrates the 145th anniversary of its liberation from Ottoman rule. Events on the occasion will be held across the country.
This year, the north-central town of Gabrovo will host the local festivities on Mt. Shipka in the Central Balkan Range and they will begin with a flag-raising ceremony in the town square in the morning.
Prime Minister Galab Donev will participate in the celebration at the Monument to Liberty on Mt Shipka on Friday morning. He will receive a guard of honour and attend a prayer service in memory of the fallen soldiers. He will make an address on the occasion and take part in the wreath-laying ceremony at Shipka.
President Rumen Radev and Vice President Iliana Iotova will attend the raising of the national flag at the Monument to the Unknown Soldier in Sofia, where they will pay tribute to the memory of those who died for the freedom of Bulgaria. Twenty gun salutes will be fired while the national anthems plays.
In the evening, the President will review troops in the square in front of the Parliament building and will make a speech. Vice President Iliana Iotova will also attend the event. Later, the President will host the traditional official reception on the occasion of the National Day at the Central Military Club in Sofia.
The ceremonial events will also be attended by Prime Minister Donev, Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov and Chief of Defence Admiral Emil Eftimov.
On March 3, servicemen from the Land Forces, the Navy, the Air Force, the Joint Special Command, the Logistic Support Command, as well as from the higher military schools will participate in the solemn rituals of raising the national flag and laying wreaths and flowers in front of the monuments of the fallen for the Liberation in a number of cities in the country.
Roll-call tattoos will be held in Plovdiv, southern Bulgaria, the Black Sea city of Varna, Sliven in south-central Bulgaria, Sandanski and Chepelare in the south.
The National Day will be marked at various places around the globe.
The statue of Christ the Savior on Corcovado Hill in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will lit up in the colours of the Bulgarian national flag in the joint initiative of the Bulgarian Football Union and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The City Hall in Montreal, Canada, will fly a Bulgarian flag and the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Washington, and the antennas of the Willis Tower in Chicago will also be illuminated in the white-green-red of the Bulgarian national flag.
SOURCE: GHANA NEWS AGENCY
