According to Grybauskaite, our duty is to protect, defend and personally cherish the Lithuanian language so that it would never be subject to press ban. If we preserve the native language, we will preserve our state.
The president will attend the event dedicated to the 110th anniversary of resumption of free press and will present awards to winners of the National Dictation Contest. Over 7,000 Lithuanians have participated in the annually-held contest this year. The president will award 15 winners of the contest and students of 3 most active classes.
In the evening Grybauskaite invites everyone to the courtyard of the Presidential Palace, where a concert dedicated to the jubilee of resumption of free press and to the 300th birthday anniversary of Kristijonas Donelaitis will take place. The president will deliver a welcome speech and will invite people to get familiar with the music dedicated to Donelaitis.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius has congratulated Lithuanians on the occasion of the Press Restoration, Language and Book Day.
Butkevicius says the date is significant to the country as it reminds people about the hard and patient path that had to be taken towards the freedom of the native word and about the efforts by the bright minds of the nation striving for liberation and legalisation of the Lithuanian language.
"The language is the main symbol of the state which unites and musters compatriots in every continent. It obligates us to protect, treasure and enrich our mother tongue, and to foster the deep traditions. The language and the press unite us to responsibly develop the civil society, to consolidate the democratic foundation, to take pride in the spoken and written free word.
Dear linguists, teachers, journalists and publishers – all those who take pleasure in the richness of the Lithuanian language – I sincerely congratulate you on the celebration witnessing the maturity and strength of our state. I wish you meaningful deeds, great creative success spreading the light of the Lithuanian word in the homeland and in the world," Butkevicius said.
