Today, on August 23, the State Flag Day is celebrated in Ukraine. Although the holiday was officially founded only in 2004 by President Leonid Kuchma, the history of our flag had begun long before that. After the failure of the coup in Moscow on August 23, 1991, a group of MPs brought a blue-and-yellow flag into Verkhovna Rada. And soon, in January 1992, deputies passed the law on the State Flag of Ukraine. About how people celebrate this day in the social media – in the reactions from DUMKA.
Petro Poroshenko congratulated the Ukrainians on the Flag Day, stressing that our main duty and great responsibility towards the diseased, the present and the future generations are to do our utmost to make the blue-yellow flag forever fly over the whole Ukraine. According to the president, the flag binds us into one single unity – the Ukrainian political nation, regardless of nationality and language.
Vyacheslav Abroshkin, the first deputy head of the national police has joined the congratulations on the occasion of the Flag Day celebration. He published a picture of the Ukrainian flag in the Donetsk region, where for it the life is given. It is the place, where, according to the author’s opinion, the history is made.
Said Ismagilov, Mufti of the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Ukraine “Ummah” addressed the Ukrainian people with greetings. According to him, our flag is the most beautiful and pleasing to the eye, because in its colors there is the soul and essence of Ukraine, our desire for freedom, justice, dignity, and fraternity. Ismagilov is sure: this flag will always fly over Ukraine because it’s the only place where it is native, historical and relevant.
However, the journalist Valentin Torba said that in order to really understand what the colors of the Ukrainian flag mean you have to leave the occupied city in the hot September 2014 and finally meet our military, with our Chevrons and our volunteers with the ribbons of our flag’s color. According to Torba, 2014 hasn’t ended yet.
Boris Nemirovski also has joined the discussion of the holiday. The blogger confessed that he really got something about the flag not so long ago when he received it in 2015, signed by two dozen fighters from different units. Since then, the blue-yellow cloth is together with Nemirovski everywhere, wherever he lives. On the 23 of August, you can see it on the balcony of any of his dwellings. After all, you may not be a great expert on the question – where should be yellow, and where should be blue, but you should know what is a battle standard.
A writer Olena Herasimyuk, hung on her balcony the flag of the Revolution of Dignity times. The author confessed: she wants to believe that love for his land won’t surprise anyone, and the homeland and deed of everyone will matter. Also, she wants to believe that nobody will leave even a drop of his or her blood on the light flag.
Journalist and blogger Olena Dobrovolska told the story of how she and her friend got lost a year ago in the Donetsk region. Darkness, no light, and only a piece of the road that got into the headlights – it was very scary. However not for so long. After all, soon next to them the armored car passed by and the blogger while lifting her head up saw our flag. Therefore, everyone has his own – Day of the Ukrainian flag.
The journalist and writer Ruslan Gorovyi emphasized that exhibition of flags only because it’s trendy won’t always work out, because the war will make you appreciate your colors. Moreover, many have already experienced this.
The MP and ex-spokesman of the “Right Sector” Borislav Bereza called our flag a symbol the respect for which is an integral part of our culture. At the same time, the MP expressed his hope that when our flag will fly again over Donetsk and Luhansk, over Simferopol and Sevastopol, then there will be no beast that will try to remove it.
The writer and journalist Svitlana Povalyaeva thanked everyone who defended our flag, who washed it with his own blood during all our wars, during the Maidan and in every battle of the present war. The writer also reminded that the symbols in the society are an extremely important thing because for our flag people were tortured and even killed in the center of Ukrainian capital around four years ago.
Boris Khersonsky, a writer, psychologist, and psychiatrist, spoke about the victory over those who wanted to see our flag somewhat different, in the laconic and meaningful way. They wanted to make the latest image by Van Gogh from our flag, but our flag looks quite different.
Tetyana Rychkova, a volunteer, and MP is convinced that our flag will be flying above each spoil tip, above each bay. In fact, it is there even now – blue and yellow things that not coincidentally appeared next to a window, colored crayons at the bus stop under the occupying administration and carefully picked up small yellow handbag under a blue dress in Feodosia.
Political adviser and former MP Viktor Ukolov shared the memories of how the state flag first appeared in the session hall of Verkhovna Rada. Back then it had changed the old flag of the USSR, it symbolized that the communists defeated even the sky, because the blue strip was beneath and was much smaller than the red one on the top. No, they didn’t defeat, our sky had won at last.
Volunteer Victoria Miroshnichenko congratulated her readers on the Flag Day with the words of her friend Yuriy Boguslavskyi. He is the person who, according to the volunteer, really knows the great price of our flag.
Among other politicians, Oleh Lyashko, leader of the “Radical Party”, also joined the congratulations, emphasizing that our flag is a sign of our struggle, charm of our unity, a symbol of freedom and independence. That’s why, we as Ukrainians, must preserve and honor this relic of our statehood.
The writer and interpreter Mila Ivantsova emphasized that you don’t immediately understand what the flag really means for the country and its citizens. It happens only through pain, losses, and victory, through overcoming the fear and belief in like-minded people and a common cause.
Oleh Medvedchuk, a frontier worker, spoke about a simple recipe for identifying a Ukrainian. According to him, it’s enough to just understand if your heart is shaking when you see two equal horizontal stripes of blue and yellow colors.
MP Viktor Kryvenko noted that the sacredness of the Ukrainian flag became clear to many citizens only after it began to disappear from the state institutions in the regions now occupied by Russia. Today, our flag is a definite marker, because when you travel and see it on houses, bus stops, you understand: our guys are here.
The crew of the film “The Kiborgs”, also congratulated the Ukrainians, they wished our flag to fly proudly around the world.
That’s it, my darlings, celebrate, keep the main symbols, and don’t be like “Unian”, because you can welcome the Flag Day this way somewhere a little bit further. As one great journalist said, 600-700 kilometers, across the border and you’ve just arrived. Budmo (Cheers in Ukrainian)!
Reactions were collected and the Flag Day was celebrated by Stepan the Goat
