What fresh hell is this? National VE day

[wetpants]

This has popped up on my local FB page, villagers are all up for it too. Apparently it’s a nationwide incentive??

The thing is, most front gardens are tiny or non existent here. There’s no way you could be 2m away from your next door. Also these villagers who are up for this are the same people who few weeks ago cried about a lone bloke sitting on a crass verge, well away from any pedestrians. How is this any different?

I’m not British (have lived here a long time though) so maybe I’m just not getting the fervent VE day misty eyeness

And don’t get me started on 9pm nationwide singalong WHO comes up with these things???

I'll celebrate the same way my grandma did, stuck in a city with nothing to do and ask the shops closed! 🤭 (She was stationed in NYC at the time, but decided to go upstate with friends that day - oops!)

Beats what my grandfather was up to on that day fighting in the Pacific and my other grandmother hiding from allied planes in Japan.

MrsFlora Hah, that’s more like it

I thought it was a parody when i first saw it

we didnt beat the Germans though, we beat the nazis and fascists, dont forget

And too many people have a skewed view of who the "we" was. It wasn't the English or even the British. It was the allies. A combined military and economic effort of many nations and even volunteers from nations that weren't involved. Add to that, people shouldn't delude themselves they were part of the "we" unless you they over 90.

doughnuthole oh bugger, I missed that one

Alice No, doesn’t start with D

For those who say just ignore it - well I wish I could! It’s suddenly everywhere, on FB and the whatsapp groups! I’ve muted the groups for now, FB is harder to avoid as I have a business page which I have to check daily

So you've muted all these WhatsApp groups you're in that are talking about this yet started a thread to discuss it...

Why does having to check your Facebook business page mean you are seeing posts about this on there? Do you sell bunting, tea and scones for a living?

Of course your OP is sneery and dismissive but then again it wouldn't have got much traction otherwise. The irony of all the posters talking about virtue signalling when the majority of responses on here are just that. Join in or don't. No-one is forcing any of you.

@GenXer That's a lovely idea. I'd like to do the same.

@wetpants 🤣 on my village page as well! Thought you was one of my neighbours that I try and avoid

I will be thinking of my Dad, who (aged 21), was with the troops who liberated Bergen-Belsen

Which is understandable and kind. And seems a million miles away from bunting, cheesy sing-a-longs and the rest of jingoistic and twee shite that is being suggested.
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But you don't have to do it that way, do you? Free choice and all that. All I want is for people to remember and commemorate as they see fit, without sneering. That could be a full on covid-distanced party, or a quiet sit in the garden.

I just don't get why people feel compelled to do something for fear of Facebook wrath

Upthread, did someone seriously post "if you don't have a street party to celebrate freedom, you don't deserve it"? [facepalm] - umm, you do know who was a fan of imposing rules of who deserved to be free, don't you...?

We were having a VE Day party, I'd bought some special VE75 bunting and everything but obviously that's not happening now.

There were events planned in our area prior to Coronavirus. My son was involved in something with school so we would have been going. We will probably mark the event but we wont be having a tea party in our front garden. We cant see into our neighbours' gardens on either side and there's only sheep across the road, so it would be a bit daft.
I'm interested in history and my Dad and my uncles all fought in WW2 so I do think it is important. However, I don't like the jingoism and I don't like the way events like these tend to get hijacked by those of a particular political persuasion. I dislike the "they fought for their country" comments because it is not universally true. People were diverse in the past just like now, and "they" fought for many reasons. My Dad fought against facism, not for British patriotism. He would be horrified by a lot of what is being claimed for his generation now and I am glad he isn't here to see it.
VE Day was a huge thing for people across Europe. It was a very significant event and it should be remembered, but not in some crass "British Bulldog" way. I'm not sure what we will do, but we won't be out waving flags in the street.
It is also pissing me of quite a lot that I keep seeing exhortations to "celebrate the end of WW2." Partly this is because I am a pedant so the historical inaccuracy annoys me, but mainly it is because the tendency to forget the Far Eastern conflict makes me angry. I know VE Day was a bittersweet day for my grandmother as she had sons who were fighting in Europe so it was a great relief to her, but her youngest, my Dad was in the Far East. He was a teenager, barely older than my sons now, and like many was witness to some truly horrific things. The war was very much still on for a large part of the world including many British troops.
It is important. We should remember and we should be grateful, but the world wars were not some kind of jolly jape to celebrate, or memories to manipulate to push a nationalistic agenda.

I’ve just proposed to my Facebook military wives group for my patch that we all do the Lambeth Walk. Nobody has replied.

I just don't get why people feel compelled to do something for fear of Facebook wrath

People just don't get it do they? If all your neighbours are outside your house celebrating, you cannot avoid it unless you live in a very big house with a very long drive!

I shouldn't have to close all the curtains and hide in a back room!

Ah what a shame .. I’m busy that day doing absolutely none of that whatsoever ..

VE Day was a huge thing for people across Europe

Western Europe.

The war carried on in the east which is often forgotten.

It's been doing the rounds of my area as well.
Vom I won't be participating.

And National Sing-along?! F**k off.

Yes, events were planned prior to the COVID-19 outbreak - the Bank Holiday was moved from the 1st Monday in May to the 8th May for this very reason!

God I'd rather pull out my own back teeth with a pair of rusty pliers
Thank fuck no one where i live will be doing this

IMm just ducked off that they moved the normal holiday so I am working I. My birthday and resting they I’d rather have my eyeballs removed with a rusty spoon!

cologne 4711 if you think having visited Bergen-Belsen gives you any idea what it was like on the day it was liberated you should look at some of the film and photographs taken and read some of the accounts.

This is yet another thread loved by the whingers and those who have absolutely no concept of the sacrifices made by the wartime generation or what they had to witness. I agree entirely with the attitude "do it, don't do it but for Heaven's sake stop whinging about those who exercise their freedom (either way) and above all do not belittle those to whom we owe that freedom. VE day celebrates the end of the war in Europe, the freedom which Europe enjoyed as a result of the victory over fascism, although it took so much longer to achieve over communism. It do not see how it can be said to celebrate war or be militaristic.

@1forsorrow what a terrible experience your dad had; I'm so sorry that he suffered over something that was clearly and absolutely outside of his control. Talking with people who have similar experiences in other war and conflict situations, it is very very hard to deal with.