Holodomor Remembrance Day, 24 November 2012

Today Ukraine remembers those who died in the famine of 1932 and 1933.

The candle goes in the window at four in the afternoon. I asked once why that hour, and the answer was practical rather than symbolic: in late November it is already dark, so a light in a window is visible from the street.

That is the whole design. The gesture has to be seen by neighbours to work, and the hour is chosen so that it can be.

A country remembering something privately, in a way that is deliberately arranged to be visible to the people next door, is doing something more sophisticated than a ceremony.

My respect to everyone marking today.