Peace Memorial Day

Not all holidays are celebrations, some are days of remembrance.  Such is the subjects of today’s post.

Since 1995 when former President Lee Teng-hui formally apologized for the government, Taiwan has recognized the 28^th of February as Peace Memorial Day, this is to commemorate the “228 Incident”. 

The “228 Incident” is a reference to the 2^nd month 28^th day, when an uprising came to a head.  For 50 years it was forbidden to speak of the incident or the people who died/went missing during this time.  Because of the deep seated taboo of speaking about the incident many people who are descendents of those victims did not and to this day do not know anything about their relatives involvement in this.  Peace Memorial Day is a day to remember all those people. 

  

I am not intending to pick sides or lay blame or praise for what has been done by any government, but I do respect the ideal of remembering innocents lives that have been lost and that a government has at least admitted that innocent people where caught up in such a terrible tragedy.

Links:

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Memorial_Day

From the Taiwan govermnet web site http://www.gio.gov.tw/info/festival_c/228_e/228_e.htm

Comments

[Wikipedia » Peace Memori]

[...] Holiday A Day wrote an interesting post today on Peace Memorial DayHere’s a quick excerptNot all holidays are celebrations, some are days of remembrance. Such is the subjects of toda [...]