from the open sources
Today, November 21, Ukrainians celebrate the Day of Dignity and Freedom. For the ninth year in a row, on this day, the country honours those who died for its freedom and commemorates the significant events of the Revolution of Dignity.
"Two values, inextricably intertwined, like the right and left banks of the Dnipro River. Like blue and yellow colors. Like Chubynsky’s words and Verbytsky’s music. Like two threads of a pattern on a vyshyvanka where our genetic code is encrypted. This is dignity and freedom. We always remembered this and have no right to forget," - President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said in his address.
We will add that November 21 is also the eastern-calendar Feast of St. Michael the Archangel, a saint to which Ukraine has attachment. Nine days after the Euromaidan revolution started on St. Michael’s Day in 2013, the then-secret police, "Berkut", used force against the protesters, ultimately killing many, now known throughout Ukraine as "the Heavenly Hundred."
Seeing the situation unfold, the Orthodox monks at the St. Michael Golden-Domed monastery near the main square in Kyiv began to toll the bells signaling solidarity and calling others to join; the monastery became more or less a fortress for the protestor. The people stood their ground and eventually in February 2014 President Yanukovych fled to Moscow, ushering in a new era of Ukrainian culture and life.
By Vitalii Holich
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Lviv Now is an English-language website for Lviv, Ukraine’s «tech-friendly cultural hub.» It is produced by Tvoe Misto («Your City») media-hub, which also hosts regular problem-solving public forums to benefit the city and its people.