Great Union Day – Romania

Great Union Day (Romanian: Ziua Marii Uniri, also called Unification Day or National Day) occurring on December 1, is the national holiday of Romania. It marks the unification of Transylvania, Bessarabia, and Bukovina with the Romanian Kingdom in 1918. This holiday was set after the Romanian Revolution and commemorates the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia, which declared the Union of Transylvania with Romania.

Prior to 1948, the national holiday of Romania was set to be on May 10, which had a double meaning: it was the day on which Carol I set foot on the Romanian soil (in 1866), and it was the day on which the prince ratified the Declaration of Independence (from the Ottoman Empire) in 1877. In Communist Romania, the date of the national holiday was set to August 23 to mark the 1944 overthrow of the pro-fascist government of Marshal Ion Antonescu.

National Day Parade

Every year, an annual military parade of the Romanian Armed Forces on Piața Constituției (Constitution Square) in central Bucharest is held in honor of the occasion. A parade is also held in the city of Alba Iulia.

With the President of Romania being the guest of honor at the Bucharest parade in his/her constitutional role as Commander in Chief, he/she receives the report by the Chief of the Romanian General Staff upon their arrival on the square to a bugle call fanfare being played by a lone trumpeter. After receiving the salute, the president walks to salute the color guard provided by the Michael the Brave 30th Guards Brigade before inspecting and greeting the guard of honor. After this, Deșteaptă-te, române! is then performed by the Regimental Band of the Michael the Brave 30th Guards Brigade and a combined military and civilian choir as a 21-gun salute is fired in the background. Following this, the president lays a wreath at the Arcul de Triumf before heading back to the grandstand. After this, the parade commander orders the start of the parade, which is usually led by a massed color guard and foreign troops before the active personnel of the armed forces march on the parade route. After this, the ground column, which are composed of tanks, police vehicles, and emergency vehicles follow, accompanied by the occassional flypast. The parade is then ended with the Honour Guard of the 30th Guards Brigade and the massed bands marching off the square.