Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Almost National Day: Celebrations in Troisvierges, Esch and More

It's that time of the year again: Tomorrow, June 23, is Luxembourg's national day and today all the traditional pre-festivities took place. While the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess visit a different municipality each year, the Hereditary Grand Duke and Hereditary Grand Duchess made their traditional visit to Esch-sur-Alzette. In the evening, they all reunited for an event in Luxembourg city, but let's start at the beginning.
Photo: Chris Karaba / Luxemburger Wort / Wort.lu
The celebrations for Luxembourg's Nationalfeierdag officially kicked off with changing of the guard in front of the palais grand-ducal. This year, Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa made a visit to Troisvierges in the north of the Grand Duchy where they were welcomed by Ministers Romain Schneider, Fernand Etgen and Mark Hansen as well as Deputy Mayor Edy Mertens. After a wreath was laid at the war memorial next to the town hall, the group proceeded to the parish church Saint-André de Troisvierges, which is a national monument, where they learned about the history of the church as well as heard an organ concert. The grand ducal visitors also saw the Tony Bourg library, the cultural centre and the culinary village, where they tasted international culinary delicacies. Visuals from Troisvierges at Wort and Tageblatt.
Photos: Claude Piscitelli / Luxemburger Wort / Wort.lu
Meanwhile, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie visited Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg's second largest city. They were greeted at the Place de la Résistance by Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and President of the Chamber of Deputies Mars Di Bartolomeo as well as mayor Vera Spautz and the college of aldermen. The couple also laid a wreath of flowers at the foot of a war memorial, before heading to the town hall to follow the traditional parade the city's associations and organisations. Then the Hereditary Grand Duke and Hereditary Grand Duchess also lit the traditional campfire of the Luxembourg Scouts for the Escher Volleksfest. Pictures from Esch can be found at Wort and Tageblatt.

Earlier this evening, there was a procession of firefighters and scouts carrying torchlights as well as folklore and musical groups and associations - but as there are no visuals yet, we will have a seperate post about that event which apparently brought out an array of members of the Grand Ducal Family. Vive!

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