On Thursday, 16 June, the Saeima adopted in the second and final reading urgent amendments to the Law on Public Holidays, Remembrance and Festive Days providing for several new remembrance days: the National Partisan Armed Resistance Remembrance Day, National Resistance Movement Remembrance Day, as well as the 21 November 2013 Tragedy Remembrance Day. The amendments also set out a new festive day, the Official Language Day.
In the explanatory note of the Draft Law, 2 March is proposed as the National Partisan Armed Resistance Remembrance Day, since it was on this day in 1945 that the biggest battle in the history of the Latvian national partisan movement took place on the islands of Stompaki Bog in Viļaka disctrict (former Abrene).
17 March is designated as the National Resistance Movement Remembrance Day because on this day in 1944 the Latvian Central Council under Konstantīns Čakste completed the collection of signatures for the memorandum demanding, on behalf of the Latvian people, the independence of the Republic of Latvia to be restored de facto. On this date, all participants of the national resistance movement are to be honoured and remembered, as pointed out in the explanatory note of the Draft Law.
On 21 November, the country will commemorate the day of the Zolitūde tragedy when 54 people died as a result of roof collapse in the supermarket Maxima. According to the explanatory note of the Draft Law, the remembrance day will be a tribute to all the victims of the tragedy and a reminder of the society's shared responsibility to prevent such tragedies from ever happening again.
15 October has been designated as the Official Language Day due to the fact that on 15 October 1998 the Latvian language was established as the official language of the Republic of Latvia by the Saeima in Article 4 of the Constitution. The celebration of the Official Language Day will highlight the constitutional importance of the Latvian language as the only official language in the formation of a cohesive society and the perpetuity of statehood of Latvia, as set out in the explanatory note of the Draft Law.
Saeima Press Service