The Icelandic nation celebrated its national holiday, June 17 yesterday. The national holiday is a day when people gather in public celebration and since it is outdoors, it usually rains. Yesterday, however, was an exception, and the sun shone over most of the island.
The nation celebrated its 64th year as an independent republic and President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson said at this occation that the battle for independence was not some a bygone affair restricted to the 1944 generation, but an “inexhaustible matter of every good Icelander”. Morgunbladid reports
Prime Minister Geir Hilmar Haarde held his annual speech at Austurvöllur square and encouraged the nation to stand together at these unstable times in the economy. “Icelanders have been through such a period before and they will again” Haarde said.
