On 25th March, 1988, five thousand people gathered on Hviezdoslavovo square in Bratislava to show their peaceful resent, holding candles in their hands, to the ruling communist regime in Czechoslovakia.
This historical event became known as the Candle demonstration. It was the first mass demonstration against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia since 1969. The Demonstration was organized by Roman Catholic dissent groups asking for religious freedom in Czechoslovakia. The peaceful demonstration was suppressed by the police. Slovakia commemorates this event as the Struggle for Human Rights Day.
The historian Frantisek Neupauer says that the Candle demonstration of 1988 is an important event in Slovak history, though not many people understand its value. According to Neupauer, the Candle demonstration in Slovakia was of a similar importance as the Palach week in the Czech Republic in January 1989, the unsuccessful demonstration in China in the spring of 1989 or the march in the German city of Leipzig in the autumn of 1989. “All these events lead to the fall of the Berlin wall and to our freedom”, says Neupauer.
