ALTON\u2014To celebrate the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg\u2019s National Day on June 23, the Luxembourg Heritage Society of Northwest Iowa placed Luxembourg flags on the graves of 28 original settlers.<\/p>\n
They were among the initial group of 38 Luxembourgers who traveled by ox-drawn wagons from St. Donatus along the Mississippi River in east-central Iowa to settle near Alton in May 1870.<\/p>\n
Over the years, most of the settlers remained in N\u2019West Iowa, raising families and building a solid economic foundation.<\/p>\n
At their deaths, they were buried in area cemeteries including St. Mary\u2019s Catholic Cemetery, Alton; St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery, Granville; St. Anthony Catholic Cemetery, Hospers; Calvary Cemetery, Le Mars; Holy Name Cemetery, Marcus; and St. Mary\u2019s Catholic Cemetery, Remsen.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
However, the history of Luxembourg began about 963 A.D., and the country\u2019s story is complicated.<\/p>\n
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 Nov. 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:<\/p>\n
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.St. Joseph, Granville: Konz, John P.; Konz, Nicholas; Ney, Peter; Neuroth, Theresia (Wagner).St. Anthony, Hospers: Harens, Mathias; Remacle, Henry J.Calvary, Le Mars: Hansen, Franz; Hansen, Margaret (Streng); Engeldinger, Catherine (Hansen); St. John, Margaret (Konz) and husband John St. John; Nemmers, Nicholas.St. Mary\u2019s, Remsen: Arens, Franz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALTON\u2014To celebrate the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg\u2019s National Day on June 23, the Luxembourg Heritage Society of Northwest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[5,56,2734],"class_list":["post-9228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-luxembourg","tag-luxembourg","tag-news","tag-nwest_iowa_review"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@lu\/116835452568378239","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/lu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9228","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=9228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/lu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/lu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/lu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/lu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/lu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}