Happy 100th anniversary, Romania!

Romania is turning 100 today, December 1.

Also known as the Great Union Day or the Unification Day, December 1 is Romania’s national day, marking the unification of Transylvania, Bessarabia and Bukovina with the Romanian Kingdom in 1918. This holiday was agreed after the Romanian anti-communist Revolution in 1989 and commemorates the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia,  which declared the Union of Transylvania with Romania.

Every year, an annual military parade of the Romanian Armed Forces in Bucharest, under the Arch of Triumph, is held to mark the country’s anniversary. A parade is also held in the city of Alba Iulia, where the Great Union had been initially sealed.