Since we started this blog, we’ve always dedicated a very special entry to the Aberri Eguna, the day when all Basque patriots remember that we are a Nation and that we have a Homeland, the Basque Homeland.
This year, we’re going to have to commemorate this date under very special conditions. But that’s nothing new. As we well remember in a manifesto that was published today, of the 88 times the Day of the Homeland has been celebrated, the abertzales spent “Three in a war, and forty more under a dictatorship, in clandestinity and exile”.
On this year’s Day of the Homeland, signs like this need to fill the streets
This preventive lockdown to stop the spread of COVID-19 is therefore a very special occasion, but it is far from the worst circumstance we Basques as a whole have had to celebrate our national holiday under.
But it is true that on this occasion, we will not be able to get together and celebrate the same way we Basques have bee used to doing all over the world for all these years: not in the streets, not in the trenches, not in the jails. Even our brothers of the diaspora, whose celebrations never had to be limited due to a dictatorship, won’t be able to meet in their Euskal Etxeak to commemorate it together.
This year, we’re going to have to celebrate it at home. Many might even get together on videoconferencing, in order to raise a glass together, apart. Necessity is the mother of invention, and we’re sure our commitment will open up our imagination.
Example of an ikurriña as a profile pic
But there is a petition, a proposal to make this day more visibile, to reaffirm our demans for a Free Homeland for a Free People: Ikurriñas outside our homes. It’s true, they’ve always been there, but this year, it will have a special value. It will be the best way to publicly show that we Basque patriots maintain our commitment. We’re signing up for it, and once more, this year, the Ikurriña will wave from our windows.
But since under these special circumstances, it’s necessary to greatly highlight the celebration of the Aberri Eguna, we’re sharing two images that can be used on social media. One, the first, is a great way to share as profile pictures on WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, and the like. The second is great for sharing on your wall. You’ll find them both at the end of this article.
We’d also like to propose two hashtags for the occasion:
#IkurriñaEtxean
#GeureaIkurriña
Aberri Eguna. Logo from the 1930s with the coats of arms of the Basque territories and the slogan marking the rebirth of the Homeland
We’ll also leave you with the manifesto published for this year’s Day of the Homeland by the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Aranzazu Euzko Etxea in Lima: it’s full of feeling and goes over the origins and meaning of the Aberri Eguna. The manifesto is accompanied by an image, on the second page of the .pdf, that is an icon and which, with a couple of variations, we ourselves recently used as a message about COVOD-19.
