Both local and national organisations have put in place activities for us to join in with on Friday May 8th 2020 to help us celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE Day. So even though we are physically apart from each other, we can still come together in common action as communities and #stayconnected. There are lots of activites here to help you prepare for the big day, and special moments you can take part in on 8th May too. If you would like a short summary, you can download my main planning points, HERE.
Festival
Dronfield Arts Festival
Lots of ideas and resources here on how you can have a party at home! Just click this link to access all their resources.
Beautiful Bunting
Show us your flags! I would LOVE you to send me a video of you hanging up some bunting, like my video here. I will combine them all into one movie and it will look like the bunting we’re putting up is SUPER long! Please send any videos of your bunting hanging to thehistoryvan@gmail.com if you want it to be included in the public video.
11am Two Minutes Silence
Official commemorations will begin at 11:00 with a national moment of remembrance and a two-minute silence
Display the Logo
Download and print the official logo. Display it wherever you can; maybe in your windows next to any rainbows and Key Worker messages.
Make a Party Hat
Many of the children who went to their street’s VE Day Party in 1945 would not have been able to buy decorations. Lots of them made their own paper hats to wear. Download my special newspaper instructions, you can even use them to make your hats! Can you come up with your own paper hat design?
3pm The Nation’s Toast
At 3pm on 8th May 1945, Winston Churchill addressed the nation to announce the unconditional surrender of Germany. Click here to find the toast you should raise your glasses to at 3 pm. Click here to listen to that original broadcast.
Organise a picnic!
Bake something special and share it with your loved ones in a VE Day Picnic. Why not ask other households on your street to have one to. If it’s good weather, why not have it in your garden or driveway so you can wave flags at each other. Find recipes to try for both food and drink on our further resources page.
Games For All
Help bring your community together in the days leading up to VE Day by playing hopscotch and hunting rocks! Hopscotch was a popular street game in the 1940s, and you may have seen chalked activites appear on a pavement near you during this current period for people to enjoy as they walk past. Why not have a go and chalking a hopscotch game outside your home for people to play as they walk past. You could also find a rock to paint with a VE Day theme and leave it around your local area for others to find.
6.55pm A Cry for Peace
Town Criers and other people around the world will be undertaking a special international Cry for Peace around the World in all manner of locations. You don’t have to be a Town Crier to take part. It could be a member of your local community. Click on the image to download the words of the Cry so that it can be performed at a location of your choice.
7pm Ring the Bells
The sound of bells is deeply rooted in British culture, providing the soundtrack to historic moments – calling us to pray, to work, to arms, to celebrate and, in times of crisis, to come together. Church bells may be prevented from ringing so let’s contribute our own noise by ringing bells, banging saucepans from your front gardens at 7pm.
9pm The Queen & BBC Special Broadcast
The BBC will broadcast special programmes to mark the milestone occasion, with the monarch’s address to the nation to be aired on BBC One at 21:00 BST. Presented by Sophie Raworth, an evening programme which will feature Welsh soprano Katherine Jenkins, actor Adrian Lester and singer Beverley Knight, who will be performing some well-known songs from the 1930s and 40s. It will culminate in the nation being invited to sing along to a rendition of We’ll Meet Again.
A moment of reflection
Why not take a moment at the end of the day to light a candle and listen to the words of Alexander Vaincourt, with his poem, The Common Soldier, recited by Gerry Cannell. His words are for ALL soldiers.
The History Van 