Today marks the 75th anniversary of VE Day which marked the end to World War II. As a result of the VE Day celebrations this year, the Bank holiday that always happens on the first Monday of the month of May was moved to the Friday for a three-day long weekend of celebrations. Many large-scale plans and events across the country were taking shape for VE Day celebrations this year, but these had to be completely changed and cancelled due to COVID19. Instead, the country have had to celebrate the day at home.
A few streets had their own street parties with plenty of bunting, flags, and other decorations in addition to all of the rainbows and NHS tributes. The night before, the clapping for the NHS took place with a miniature street party in advance of the VE Day celebrations. The street that I live on has had live music. The party for VE Day was pretty similar with neighbours meeting up for a chat and drink while obeying the social distancing measures.
I started the day by having afternoon tea in the front garden. This was then followed up with stronger drinks, which is much-needed after all of the stress and current situation. Neighbours offered up drink and cake, such as the beautiful Victoria sponge one below.
I left the house to walk around the block. This is the first time that I have left the house since getting home from work on the 16th of March. The weather was beautiful all day. I loved seeing the decorations.
We listened to Churchill's famous VE Day speech in the early afternoon and then the Queen's special VE Day speech later on in the day.
I am hoping that somehow we can get back to normal pretty soon, but obviously only after it is safe to do so in order to not lose people. So many have lost their lives, and it is crippling everyone's lives. There are parallels between those days and our own current time.
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