FETE DE L'INDEPENDANCE

Without doubt, the country's most important national holiday. On that same day, in 1991, the forces of the EPLF came to the capital by claiming Eritrea's independence, after 30 years of bloody war against the Ethiopian army. That is what is being commemorated. Of course, the Independence Celebration is celebrated throughout the country, but it is in the capital that the celebration is the most spectacular: for a week (from 16 to 24) there are shows on Shahbaz Meskerem square and at the Odeon cinema, parades on Harnet Avenue, concerts across the city and a huge celebration at the Asmara stadium on 24. It always begins with a minute's silence in memory of the martyrs and then the various bodies of the army, as well as the police, pass on to their turn on the grass of the stadium. It is then the schoolchildren who come to sing, dance and finally scroll through the flag of the country. The celebration ends with the national anthem.