HRH Crown Prince Alexander sends his congratulations to all citizens of Serbia and the Republic of Srpska on the forthcoming Statehood Day, the holiday of the Meeting of the Lord (Serbian “Sretenje Gospodnje”), emphasizing that this holiday unites the courage and love for freedom with the statesmanship and feeling of justice of our ancestors and that it is their legacy which lasts until today:
“On the Statehood Day of our Homeland, the holiday of the Meeting of our Lord, we remember the year 1804, when the First Serbian Uprising was raised under the leadership of the Supreme Leader Karađorđe when the fight for the final freedom of our people began after centuries of enslavement, but also the year 1835 and the first Constitution of Serbia, one of the most modern, most democratic and most liberal highest legal acts of its time.
Although these two events from our past are the main motives for celebrating Statehood Day, the Meeting of Our Lord is much more than that. In “Sretenje”, the statesmanship of Stefan Nemanja met and united with Karađorđe’s courage and determination, the wisdom of Saint Sava with the perspicacity of Prince Miloš, the legislative tradition of Emperor Dušan with the resistance to occupying force and faith of Prince Lazar, the love for justice of King Peter I with the visionary spirit of Prince Mihailo… We could list many more rulers and famous people from our history and the virtues that adorned them, and what would be common to all of them is that they are all connected by the same thread, woven into the collective being of our people, which is a firm faith in the ideals of justice and equality, togetherness and unity in love for people and homeland.
In short, the holiday of Sretenje united the courage and love of freedom with statesmanship and feeling of justice of our ancestors, it is their legacy to us, their descendants. By preserving their heritage and striving to worthily continue their work, we build the future of our homeland as an unbroken thread that our fathers began, and which we will pass on to our children, and so on, as long as we exist. May the examples of the great people who built Serbia inspire us not to divide ourselves on the basis of our differences, but to unite, to turn to each other, to stand on common foundations and on the values that we all share.
With special joy that as of this year our people on both sides of the Drina River will jointly celebrate the Meeting of Our Lord as a national holiday, I extend my warmest congratulations to all citizens of Serbia and Republika Srpska on the occasion of Statehood Day – the day on which our foundations were renewed. May we all be united by love towards our people and our homeland, and I wish all of us and our country much success and prosperity. Long live Serbia! ”, stated HRH Crown Prince Alexander.
А short video on the official YouTube channel of the Royal Family of Serbia, dedicated to Statehood Day, will be available tomorrow, 15 February