Feast of present day

 

What is the meaning of the third of April celebrations more than nine hundred years since Henry IV's Imperial Bull? Is it still important to remember this event?  The answer is certainly positive because any event which contributes to the history of a people is important in itself. But the fundamental value at this stage of our journey across the centuries that has led us up to the present, can be understood when we go beyond the simple philological aspect of the event.

 

To discover or let's say rediscover the true meaning of the third of April we should go beyond the simple historical commemoration. That date represents a crucial passage for Friuli, a moment of reflection on our uniqueness. The third of April saw the birth of the patriarchal state with the blooming of one of the first examples of representative assemblies in Europe which would become one of the most lasting and advanced systems of the time. 

 

Today, as then, we should focus our attention on the principles of uniqueness that made the Land of Friuli one of the forerunners of democracy. The destiny of our region thus passes through April the third ten seventy-seven because without memory of the past there can be no future.

Aquileia is no more the capital of this territory but today Friuli can rediscover itself as the core of this part of the Old Continent. A region no more borderland but barycentre, throbbing heart of a new Europe.

 

Never like today has it been easy to cross borders. Distances have been reduced, walls have been pulled down. Now limits have to be broken in some people's consciences. These borders have to be knocked down without levelling onto an insubstantial homologation of cultures, but preserving those aspects of typicality that make our Friuli special.

 

On April the third ten seventy-seven Patriarch Sigeardo received the guide of the Land of Friuli from Henry IV, today all the people in Friuli must find that identity which will allow them to confront themselves  with Europe, their dowry being that uniqueness  made of language, history, traditions and culture that make us a country which is  neither big nor small but simply the Land of Friuli.