COMMENT: VE Day 75 celebration will give us much-needed light relief

Tomorrow should have been a day of street parties, parades and concerts. Major plans were under way and the nation was ready to come together as one to celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE Day, that momentous time in history when Germany surrendered and the Second World War officially came to an end in Europe.

Instead, we find ourselves in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing means such mass gatherings are just not possible.

Of course, the focus of the country right now is the deadly disease in our midst and the measures being taken to slow its spread, enabling us to get out of lockdown and slowly back to something approaching normal life.

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But we know the people of this great country will not let this stop them from marking VE Day 75, such a significant milestone, during tomorrow's specially-moved bank holiday.

We might be confined to our homes, yet there are still plenty of ways we can feel part of this national occasion.

That's why today, as well as a special VE Day supplement, we include a large flag in every copy of The News for you to cut out and proudly stick in your windows - plus we've already encouraged all our readers to patriotically dress those windows in red, white and blue.

Maybe you could make your own bunting and hang it on your house in much the same way that people did back in 1945.

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For those with outside space, why not have a family garden party tomorrow to recreate the atmosphere of the events that were to have taken place in our streets?

Because celebrating in 2020 is not just about remembering what happened 75 years ago.

It will also give us valuable light relief from the focus on coronavirus and how it has forced us to fundamentally change how we live in a way not seen since the Second World War.

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