You should expose national colours - president at 22nd Lednica Meeting
I would like to ask you to expose our red and white national colours at important events, President Andrzej Duda said on Saturday at the 22nd Youth Meeting in Lednica, western Poland, an annual gathering of Catholic youth.
In connection with this year's 100th anniversary of Poland's regaining its independence, the president offered red and white flags to all the pilgrims. Each flag was accompanied by a card signed by Andrzej Duda. The president extended his official patronage over the event.
"I am" was the official motto of the 22nd Lednica 2000 Youth Meeting attended by around 85,000 people.
On Saturday afternoon, the president took part in a procession which officially opened the 22nd Youth Meeting.
"I'm looking at you with deep affection in this special year of the 100th anniversary of Poland's regaining its independence. Polish youth are here together, singing songs, praying, creating and building a community over which white and red flags are being waved. Thank you very much for this," President Andrzej Duda said when addressing participants at the 'fish gate', which is the official symbol of the gathering.
"Thank you all for accepting this gift, a gift of the Polish flag. Take these flags home, keep them and respect them. This is what I'm asking of you. But I'm also asking you to use them. To fly these white and red colours, which are so precious, in moments of importance for you, for our country, our history and our identity," the president added.
The head of state also stressed that Ostrów Lednicki, an island located close to Lednickie Fields, the venue for the event, is said to be the place where Duke Mieszko I was baptised in 966.
"Thank you for coming here and praying, as the tradition has instructed us to do for 1050 years. It was perhaps here, in this extraordinary place where the historical heart of our homeland was beating, where Duke Mieszko and his entourage were baptised (...) maybe it was here that he made the decision to build the Polish state, to accept Christianity,' he said.
Duda laid flowers on the grave of the founder of the Lednica 2000 movement, a Dominican priest, Father Jan Góra. Then, he spent some time with the participants, dancing and taking pictures with them.
Andrzej Duda gave the organisers of the Lednica gathering a copy of the first written record of the early-Polish religious hymn "Bogurodzica". He recalled that for a time this song functioned as the Polish national anthem, and that Polish knights sang it when going to battle "in defense of their homeland, faith, tradition and freedom."
"I wish to extend my wholehearted thanks to the organisers of the 22nd Youth Meeting in Lednica and to the youth who came to Lednickie Fields for creating an amazing atmosphere full of joy, friendship, prayer and fun," the president wrote on Twitter on Sunday. (PAP)
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