Liberation from Fascist Occupation Day

[7][8] A grand military parade on Aviators' Square (now Charles de Gaulle Square) in the presence of the President of Romania and General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party would be held annually, with large parades held on jubilee anniversaries.

The parade was organized by the Romanian People's Army and featured infantry, navy, artillery, the Patriotic Guards, the Miliția and Troops of the Directorate for Security (Securitate) as well as military vehicles/aircraft such as the TR-85,[9] Volkov missiles, the IAR 330 and the IAR-93 Vultur.

[11][12] In 1989, the national day celebrations took place on Ştirbei Vodă Street past the Dâmbovița Center (also named Casa Radio),[13] the balcony of which was used by Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu to watch the festivities in the last Communist-style parade in Romania marking the sapphire jubilee anniversary year of the coup.

[14] The Law 10/1990, promulgated on 1 August 1990 by President Ion Iliescu, moved the national holiday to 1 December, the Great Union Day.

[15] Since 2011, Romania has observed the European Union-wide Day for Commemoration of the Victims of Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes, commemorating the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact on this day in 1939 (which posteriorly resulted in Romania losing Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, regions now part of Moldova and Ukraine and which had Romanian-majority communities).