On Monday, Slovakia is commemorating 31 years since the Candle Manifestation, which took place in Bratislava on Hviezdoslav square on March 25th 1988. This protest saw some 6,000 people demonstrate publically in favour of human rights and religious freedom, with religion being discouraged and clergymen being arrested shortly after the Communists took power in 1948.
In 1949, the so-called Church Laws were adopted by the Communist government, allowing the state to take full control of churches and decide on the futures of priests. Priests or nuns caught performing religious duties without permission were punished. 1951 saw a show trial of Catholic clergymen being sentenced to long jail sentences for practicing their faith, including a 24 year prison sentence for Bishop J. Vojtaššák, and life sentences for Bishop Pavel Gojdič and Bishop Michal Buzalka, while many others were placed under house arrest for their faith.
The Communist curtailment of religious freedom did not only apply to clergymen, with families also discouraged against living faith-based lives. Attending church services was discouraged and could limit your prospects at work, while parents who wanted their children to obtain a religious education would find themselves threatened at their workplaces by the state authorities. Additionally, if a student during the era of Communism in Czechoslovakia wished to study at university, he or she would have difficulty if it was public knowledge that his or her family attended church.
40 years of religious oppression culminated on March 25, 1988 with thousands taking to the streets of Bratislava to peacefully demonstrate, while praying the Rosary and lighting candles. The response from the government was intense, however, with the communist-controlled police attacking and injuring citizens with batons and water cannons to disperse the crowd while arresting others.
This simple gathering in 1988 became one of the most significant protests against the Communist regime of the time in what was Czechoslovakia, serving as a pivotal moment in its fall.
