Monday, June 23, 2014

National Day Thus Far *


Luxembourg's actual National Day kicked off this morning in a different fashion than in previous years. While the day usually started with the Te Deum at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame, it did with the newly introduced official ceremony at the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg this time around. The religious ceremony will instead take place this afternoon so stay tuned for later today as we'll have another chance to get to see the Grand Ducal Family! (Plus, there's also the national day gala tonight.)

The secular celebrations at the Grand Théâtre were attended by Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie (wearing a pink Libélula coat) as well as Prince Félix, Prince Louis and Prince Sébastien. The non-attendance of other family members isn't an unusual thing; you might remember that there has always been pretty varying attendance by the younger children of the Grand Ducal Couple in previous years.

The members of the Grand Ducal Family were welcomed at the Grand Théâtre by the President of the Chamber of Deputies Mars di Bartolomeo, Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and Luxembourg's mayor Lydie Polfer. During the ceremony also attended by members of the government, the member of the Chamber of Deputies, members of the town council of Luxembourg, the members of the Council of State, members of the judiciary, the heads of administration and the diplomatic corps, the Grand Duke, the President of the Chamber of Deputies and the Prime Minister gave speeches. In addition, they also presented deserving citizens with orders.

After the official ceremony, 101 canon salutes were fired from the Fetschenhof to honour the Grand Duke. At the moment Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa as well as Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie are at the Avenue de la Liberté where they are watching the military parade which also includes representatives of the police, fire and emergency services for example.

Visuals are available at Getty Images, Tageblatt, RTL, Wort in English, Wort in French and Wort in German. In addition, there is a video at Wort.


Source: Cour grand-ducale

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