Victory Day Celebrations to Start in United States on Thursday

Victory Day celebrations in the United States marking the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Nazism in World War II will begin on May 7 in Washington, DC and will be followed by commemoration events in New York City.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The three-day celebrations in the United States will start on Thursday afternoon with a re-enactment performance organized the Texas Flying Legends Museum at Culpeper Airport near Washington, DC.

Participants of the historical reenactment, dressed in clothes from the World War II period, will paint alternating black and white “invasion stripes” on a C-53 Skytrooper aircraft, which was used during the war.

The invasion stripes were painted on aircraft during the war to increase recognition of Allied forces aircraft — American, British, Soviet and French — to reduce friendly fire incidents.

On May 8, two Washington, DC-based organizations — the Friends of the US National World War II Memorial and the National Park Service — will co-host a special commemoration ceremony for the 70th anniversary of the victory.

During the ceremony, World War II veterans along with US officials and representatives of the Allied nations’ embassies, will lay wreaths at the Freedom Wall of the National World War II Memorial.

The Memorial opened in April 2004 to honour US citizens who served in World War II as well as to honour civilian victims.

The wreaths laying ceremony will be followed by the Arsenal of Democracy World War II Victory Capitol Flyover, when dozens of World War II-style aircraft will fly in 15 historically-sequenced warbird formations.

The formations will represent the war’s major battles that involved US troops, including the battle in Pearl Harbor and the US air assault on Japan.

New York City will also host a number of commemoration events starting on May 8.

The Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral will serve a divine liturgy at noon on Friday. After the memorial service, World War II veterans and New York officials will lay wreaths at the Cadman Plaza Park.

On May 9, a companion facility of The Smithsonian Institutions’ National Air and Space Museum, the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, will display a selection of World War II military airplanes.

The event will feature a variety of educational and WWII-era activities, including performances by the US Air Force band Airmen of Note, according to the Center.

In New York City, the May 9 celebrations will begin with a divine liturgy at the Pine Bush patriarchal estate.

The service will be followed by an opening of a memorial stone and a cross in memory of the people who died during the Great Patriotic War between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany and her allies, which lasted from June 1941 to May 1945.

After the ceremony, a holiday concert and a historical reconstruction of the brightest moments of World War II will take place.

Russia will celebrate the 70th anniversary of World War II Victory Day on May 9.

The upcoming celebrations in Moscow will be attended by 27 heads of state and government, according to the Kremlin.