MINSK, 1 September (BelTA) – While talking to reporters on 1 September Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko shared his attitude to celebrating his birthday, BelTA has learned.
In his words, he is calm about the matter and sees no point in special festivities for yet another birthday date.
Aleksandr Lukashenko remarked that his birthday is not a forbidden topic. “What is a birthday after all? Since I was young when everyone was happy about another birthday, I've always thought it is just another step towards the Lord,” he said.
“First, you just become one year older. Second, I don't like flattery, I don't like calls for celebration. Some even joke that the day should be declared a holiday. Total nonsense. And I've always tried to stay away from it,” the president noted.
Yet Aleksandr Lukashenko does not forbid people from congratulating him and is fine with it: “If a person calls me and wishes me happy birthday among other things.”
But on the whole Aleksandr Lukashenko does not think it is a great day particularly on the scale of the country. “Every person has his or her own birthday. This is why you don't have to make yourself look like a great person while alive,” he is convinced.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said that the wishes and congratulations are standard on the whole. He admitted he gets a lot of flowers and gives them away. The same applies to sweets and cakes.
The head of state stressed that gifts made with one's own hands are the most precious ones for him. For instance, this year he has been gifted a picture painted by a daughter of a Presidential Security Service officer. “The picture of me and Kolya running around with an assault rifle. It was an important moment in my life. She reproduced it rather precisely. I am certainly not an art expert but I like this picture,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
He also mentioned that reporters had gifted him a collection of T-shirts with his quotes. “‘Undress and start working!' All the biting quotes of mine,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
