Yugoslav Nostalgics Look Back Fondly at Youth Day

Yugoslavia celebrates Youth Day at the JNA stadium

Dozens of nostalgic Yugoslavs left Croatia last week en route for the Serbian capital, where they are expected to arrive on May 25, which was celebrated as Youth Day in Yugoslavia.

Youth Day was marked with a massive relay that wound across the entire country, through Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia, and ended in Belgrade on May 25 with a spectacular ceremony at the Yugoslav Army Soccer Stadium that was broadcast live.

May 25 was also the birthday of Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito, who was ceremonially presented with the baton, which had passed through all major cities in the country and carried a symbolic birthday message from the youth, at the event in the stadium.

Here is how it looked like back in 1979, the last time Tito was present at the celebration, with some 10,000 young men and women in a performance similar to the opening ceremony of the Olympics.