REMSEN – To celebrate the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg\u2019s \u201cNational Day\u201d on June 23, the Luxembourg Heritage Society of Northwest Iowa placed Luxembourg flags on the graves of 28 original settlers. These were among the initial group of 38 Luxembourgers who traveled by ox-drawn wagons from St. Donatus, Iowa in May 1870 to settle near Alton, Iowa.<\/p>\n
Over the years, most of the settlers remained in northwest Iowa, raising families and building a solid economic foundation. At their deaths, they were buried in area cemeteries including St. Mary\u2019s Cemetery, Alton; St, Joseph\u2019s Cemetery, Granville; St. Anthony\u2019s Cemetery, Hospers; Calvary Cemetery, Le Mars; Holy Name Cemetery, Marcus; and St. Mary\u2019s Cemetery, Remsen. Some of the immigrants later moved on and are buried as far away as California and Oregon.<\/p>\n
National Day in Luxembourg is similar to Independence Day in the United States, with community-wide celebrations. However, the history of Luxembourg began about 963 A.D., and the country\u2019s story is complicated. Rather than celebrating independence from one of the several countries who ruled the Grand Duchy, since the end of the 18th century it has been traditional to celebrate the reigning monarch\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n
In 1961, June 23 was chosen as the recurring date of the celebration, even though the Grand Duke\u2019s actual birthday may be on a different day. Current Grand Duke Guillaume was born November 11, 1981.<\/p>\n
Over the years, National Day has developed into Luxembourg\u2019s largest celebration.<\/p>\n
The two-day festival kicks off on June 22 with a torchlight procession, fireworks, concerts and parties, and progresses with a 21-gun salute, a military parade, and a solemn religious service at Notre Dame Cathedral in Luxembourg City on June 23.<\/p>\n
The original immigrants who were honored with flags placed at their burial places on June 23 include: St. Mary\u2019s, Alton: Biever, Michael; Biever, Magdalena Harens; Frantzen, Peter; Frantzen, Henry; Hansen, Peter; Hansen, John; Kellen, Susan Hansen: Kellen, Math: Konz, Mathias; Konz Susanna Hess; Konz, Peter: Hansen, Susanne Konz; Konz (Kontz) John Peter; Wagner, Peter; Wagner, Mary Ludowissi.<\/p>\n
St. Joseph\u2019s, Granville: Konz, John P.; Konz, Nicholas; Ney, Peter; Neuroth, Theresia (Wagner).<\/p>\n
St. Anthony\u2019s, Hospers: Harens, Mathias; Remacle, Henry J.<\/p>\n
Calvary, Le Mars: Hansen, Franz; Hansen, Margaret (Streng) Engeldinger, Catherine (Hansen); St. John, Margaret (Konz) and husband John St. John; Nemmers, Nicholas.<\/p>\n
St. Mary\u2019s, Remsen: Arens, Franz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"REMSEN – To celebrate the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg\u2019s \u201cNational Day\u201d on June 23, the Luxembourg Heritage Society…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[2725,5,56],"class_list":["post-9210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-luxembourg","tag-bell-enterprise","tag-luxembourg","tag-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@lu\/116833596607372085","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/lu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/lu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/lu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/lu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/lu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/lu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/lu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/lu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/lu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/lu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}