25TH STATEHOOD DAY

A long-time dream On June 25th, twenty five years ago, the President of Croatian Parliament announced: “Croatian State is born! May it live long and thrive!” Today we can ask ourselves – how long does a state live? An answer is – as long as our pride and love we feel for it last! Some empires have lasted for millenniums, other much less, but the long life of a state and its people are associated with the feelings we express every day when we encounter the beauties and the hardships of life in a country which we call ours. Our Croatia is plane, hilly, wavy, green and blue – in these colours shine our sea, woods, planes, towns and villages. For someone the cannon from Grič divides a day in two parts; for somebody else the same does a sparrow from the neighbour’s yard. Someone will return home after long time and breath in the smell of roses and home-made bread and someone else will take a look at the roofs of his/her native town under the sun of an early morning. The heroes of a well-known Croatian fairy-tale are called Domaći (Brownies). This day is also important for them, because they live only in our homes which they never abandon. Patriotism is not measured by great words or big gestures but by the beats of heart and smells of a morning, by a fruit tree after rain and by all we have written, invented, done and realised during our history: and, by far the most, by that what we have defended! The realisation of our dream is a quarter of a century old outcome of a centuries-old dream! Milana Vuković Runjić