On  March 21st 2014, “la Tentation” in Brussels hosted the event “The Day Of Memory” organized by Libera Bruxelles. The day of Memory  represents for Italians a day of mourning and commemoration. It’s a national day where Italy is remembering victims killed by mafias. The new born Libera Brussels group organized an event where  the Italian community was present with a big amount  of participants but we could notice the presence of many people coming for different countries. 

The fact to be in Brussels which represents the capital of Europe for the multicultarility and the presence of most European institution gives the the day of Memory an international approach underliyng the fact the Mafias are not only an Italian issue. The presence of many different kinds of people gave the event a united global imprint as so many participants turned out. The program of the event , based of course on the principe of remembering  to do not forget, gave the possibility to underline the curiosity of people coming from different backgrounds and status to be interested to come (from young students and families to people who work in european institutions).

Different kinds of videos were projected representing important elements, princips and campaign which compose Libera. The volunteers of the group gave their own testimony. Elisa Baldini, the representative of Libera Brussels and the group of volunteers explained what Libera is, which principles and campaigns they are following and  why we were there and what the event represented. 

The Artist Laura Cascone gave a tribute for the event , made by an installation  and a picture related the central theme of the evening. 

Some music (Dj Bruno Brown) and a buffet made by group of Libera contributed to make the  atmosphere more easygoing and enjoying it as a day of community and not only of mourning.

There was also a commemorative  moment, which was a concrete act to remember the name of the victims of Mafias. In Italy, traditionally, one of the solemn moments of this day is the reading in open air of all the names of the victims of mafias . Besides of the visible list of victims written in the “decoration” of la Tentation, each person at the entrance received two names in a red paper. Each person had to copy the two names of  this red paper on a “post-it” and stick it on the “wall of memory”: a white wall prepared by the volunteers. It could be considered as a solemn  wall. The moment of remembering as a community was underlined by  the fact that all the people went all together at the same moment to put all the names of the victims on the wall.The reason why people had a double copy is to underline the importance to pay attention to  their stories once they go home. That’s how everyone could eventually  be remembered and not forgotten as it unfortunately often happens.  People could also choose to remember the names the victims and to say their names in a video which libera prepared during the night.

This event , the presence of many volunteers, materials from Libera campaign and brochures gave to the public the possibility in a non-formal way to feel free to find out what is Libera. The group of Libera is open to anyone and everyone is free to give their contributions, that’s why on every event (like also this was)  there is a possible on-site registration.

Piera D’Arrigo