On the morning of 13 January 2025, the lights of remembrance, unity, and victory were lit for ten minutes in Lithuanian educational establishments and various institutions in Lithuania. This symbolic initiative commemorated the events of 1991 and the desire and determination of the Lithuanian people to defend their freedom and independence. The “Light of Victory” initiative commemorated and paid tribute to the victims of Soviet aggression and occupation.
On 13 January 2025, more than 1,200 institutions and organisations in Lithuania and Lithuanian diplomatic missions and communities abroad participated in the initiative. The initiative to light candles in windows for ten minutes on the morning of 13 January began in 2008. The initiative was called “Memory is alive because it testifies” for a long time. Initially, only a few Lithuanian schools supported the initiative, but each year the number of participating institutions has grown and is still growing. We invite you to take a look at some of the moments from the 2025 commemorations.
On the morning of 13 January, an unconventional lesson took place at Lavoriškės gymnasium in the Vilnius region, where the Tolerance Education Centre is active.
The community of Lavoriškės gymnasium gathered in the early morning of 13 January to light candles in the windows of the gymnasium. Ronaldas Račinskas, Head of the Secretariat of the International Commission, who came to the event, recalled the events of 34 years ago and stressed that “we can be proud of this victory. It was the victory of the people. The nation is not only the people who lived at that historical moment but also the previous generations who laid the foundations for the desire for freedom – the volunteers of the independence fights, the post-war partisans and resistance fighters – and the current generation, who grew up in an independent Lithuania. Ramunė Katinauskienė, the headmistress of Lavoriškės gymnasium, said that the history lesson on the morning of 13 January was different, unconventional and made us think about the past and the future of our country.
Raminta Popovienė, the Lithuanian Minister of Education, Science and Sport, who took part in the unconventional history lesson, recalled her own experience of witnessing the events of 1991 and what she felt and thought at the time. Emanuelis Zingeris, a signatory of the Lithuanian Act of Independence and Chairman of the International Commission, spoke about current issues, the war in Ukraine, and the efforts of all of us to ensure that Ukraine wins, as independence and freedom are very fragile when there is an aggressor in the neighborhood.
The event included songs and poems on the theme of freedom. Vaidotas Pakalniškis, a history teacher at Lavoriškės gymnasium and coordinator of the Centre for Tolerance Education, shared his thoughts on the lessons he learned from the events of January 1991: “The first lesson I learned as a child on the morning of 13 January 1991 was terrible and clear: evil is here. Evil has many faces. On the night of 13 January, evil took on the face of the Soviet secretary Gorbachev, the face of a drunken Soviet paratrooper, or the face of the traitors to their nation, the collaborators”.
The unconventional history lesson at Lavoriškės Gymnasium reminded us that the most important value is FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE and that it is necessary to fight for and defend it.
