August 31, 2010

August 31 is also a holiday in Moldova--Language Day. On that day in 1989, the parliament, while the country was still officially a part of the USSR, made Romanian the official language in Moldova. Before then, Russian was dominant and the official language. The language battle apparently has been going on for years. Those who sponsored the change to Romanian are now regarded as national heros--by some--but not all.  Russian still dominates in a breakaway part of Moldova and even here in Chisinau, Russian shop managers tend to ignore you if you don't speak Russian. There are a number of tv channels is Russian that are popular as well as the ones in Romanian and you see both languages written in various parts of the city.
A street near to where I live is August 31 street, so you can see that the date is well known and promoted.

Actually, not much seemed to go on.  There was a performance by musicians and some honoring of people represented by statues in the park. People do seem to purchase flowers on this day--to take home or to put out on monuments.
 I've added a couple of photos--you can see the rainy day.

That's it for now.