"On the night of April 11, special forces beat the striking lawmakers and dragged them into the street, injuring 7 people. The Procurator General's Office launched a criminal investigation into the incident, but dropped it later under pressure from the president's administration, and no one was ever charged nor punished for the beatings of the parliamentarians.
The following day, under prodding from the president and with the opposition physically disabled and absent, the Supreme Soviet agreed to include all the four questions in the referendum and hold it on May 14 along with parliamentary elections. In the referendum, President Lukashenko's proposals were approved by some 80 percent of those who took part. The official explanation for dropping the investigation was the failure to establish those who had beaten the parliamentarians and circumstances of the incident." Also see "Referendum, May 14, 1995".
In addition to the Easter celebrations themselves, traditional "Easter Monday" was celebrated for both Easters, but is not officially noted currently in Belarus.
Feeling that the referendum could be a mortal blow to Belarusian national dignity and honor, opposition parliamentarians attempted to block three of the four referendum questions. On April 11, 1995, nineteen of the opposition Supreme Soviet members went on a hunger strike in the parliament house to make their point. The striking parliamentarians were forcibly evicted from the building by special forces using violence.
Also see Belarusian History information and links.
Since the Belarusian Declaration of Sovereignty in July, 1990, Dzen' Dzyady became an occasion for patriotic demonstrations emphasizing the victims and heroes of the historical past. Such observances were led by the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF) and other groups and included marches to Kurapaty, a site near Minsk where mass executions took place during the Stalinist era of the USSR.
This date is celebrated by most Christians throughout the world, including many Eastern Orthodox Christians. (Rather than the January 7th date celebrated by Russian Orthodox Christians. The latter is primarily celebrated by those churches under the authority of the Russian Patriarch, including all Eastern Orthodox churches in Belarus.)
The official holidays tend to be Soviet and pro-Russian in orientation, and are just as usually anti-Belarus nationalism. Also as many note, they seem to be created in support of resurrecting a new Soviet Union with Aleksandr Lukashenka as its leader. The nine (9) official holidays, as noted in the preceding list, were accurate as of March, 1998, and are noted with the parenthetical "(official)" after them. These are the days that are official rest days (exemption from work).