With lockdown still in effect, this year’s Victory in Europe (VE) Day celebrations will be held at home.
VE Day will take place this Friday and plans had been made for a spectacular street party as pubs across the UK were expected to stay open later, until 1am.
However, due to the coronavirus“>pandemic, people are planning alternative shindigs to be held in the safety and comfort of their houses, such as afternoon tea events.
Let’s take a look at why we mark this occasion and look at how it has been celebrated in the past.
Why do we celebrate VE Day?
VE Day falls on 8 May as that date marked the end of World War Two in Europe, meaning that this year is the 75th anniversary of the important date.
On 30 April 1945, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler killed himself. Soon after, his successor Karl Donitz authorised Germany’s surrender, and 50,000 people descended upon Piccadilly Circus to wave flags, dance and sing in the street.
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The day was declared a national holiday from then onwards.
The royal family has taken part in the celebrations since the very first VE Day, when then Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret took to Buckingham Palace’s balcony alongside King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
The pair also later snuck out to join the British people on the streets.
‘I pulled my uniform cap well down over my eyes,’ Queen Elizabeth II told the BBC in 1985.
‘I remember lines of unknown people linking arms and walking down Whitehall, and all of us were swept along by tides of happiness and relief.’
In 2020, Queen Elizabeth II will address the nation at 9pm, at the same time her father went on radio in 1945 to announce that ‘nearly six years of suffering and peril’ were over.
Famous VE Day quotes
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‘My dear friends, this is your hour. This is not victory of a party or of any class. It’s a victory of the great British nation as a whole. We were the first, in this ancient island, to draw the sword against tyranny. After a while we were left all alone against the most tremendous military power that has been seen. We were all alone for a whole year.’ – Winston Churchill
‘Humility must be the measure of a man whose success was bought with the blood of his subordinates, and paid for with the lives of his friends.’ – General Dwight D. Eisenhower
‘At 11 o’clock this morning came to an end the cruellest and most terrible war that has ever scourged mankind. I hope we may say that thus, this fateful morning, came to an end all wars.’ – David Lloyd George
‘You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.’ – Winston Churchill, again
‘The world must know what happened, and never forget.’ – General Dwight D. Eisenhower, again
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MORE: VE Day 2020: What was planned and how has coronavirus changed that?
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