#i go to fiction to escape that nonsence not to be reminded of it by americans being usefull idiots like guys guys guys pleaseeeee

[melni-zirgi]

Nah being fr i think that the fandom seeing independance days as birthdays for very many nations is straight up insulting and a very very american idea. It's the same kind of thinking that gives to those "omg i am older than the countey of serbia" memes.

Like okkkkaaayyy, maybe it makes sence in USA to conceptualise yourself as the folkpeople becoming 'Muricans rather than a brittish colony on the independance day, but in Europe and Asia and Africa these people, a continous line of an ethnicity, the idea of " deutch" or "latgalīši" or "the people who live in the carpathian basin" existed before becoming a conquered imperial land. I get it why for America (or Canada, Australia, etc) this works, but it is not the way things are elsewhere. It is americanocentric.

Its very offputting and invalidates history in such an insidious way. In the case of the baltics +Belarus + especially at this time Ukraine, to celebrate their 1991 independance days as birthdays is playing into russian propaganda that our histories only begin then, and that everything before it is unorganised and primitive, that russians gave us cultures etc etc etc (you can look it up, im not going to dwelve into long detail here). It is an insult to centuries of past, centuries of culture, national identity (be it under diffrent names- Wallachia, Ruthenia, Livonia, so on), and our sovereignity.

I'm not saying we dont celebrate independance days, like we even have two of them (both from russians); they should be memorated. Im not saying hetaliafandom cant have events and weeks n stuff put on these dates. But not as birthdays, I beg. And I do get the headcanons and interpretations, but I ask you to see why it alienates and makes uncomfortable the people *from* these places.

In the case of Lithuania you can choose february 14 1009 when it was first mentioned with the name, or july 6 1253 when the first king was crowned. For Latvia you could use the date of 1204 when the first city of Riege(Rīga) was established by german crusaders, but i dont use a birthday, since there is no concrete date in the 11th century when Latgale was first described by name (up to a hubdred years earlier, so i usually put him besides Lithuania...) For Ukaine you can use the establishing of the Kyivan Rus, for Belarus aswell the first named instances of Ruthenia, so on and so on. There are many important days these characters could assume in the place of a human birthday, and I hope you understand none would use the earliest independances.. There is aswell nothing wrong with them not having set birthdays or ages - like damn, it gets complex and nuanced! They can just hold memorations like everyone else in the country does, with plausible deniability were they there or not. You people are constantly creative with this fandom, this cant possibly be a problem.

There is old and known history to these characters' countries, what to talk about all others whove declared independances from china, russia, england, france, austro-hungary... You do not have to default to the youngest independance dates. I beg you to do better, for your own sake- if i see one more "happy birthday Lithuania" on the 11th made by americans im gonna tear their heads off 🥹💓