A new tradition in FNRY and SFRY, where Tito's birthday, 25th of may, was the designated Day of the youth. The symbol of the unity of the youth across the country and... well, whatever the iconography had to say, was symbolically taken in a baton which would be carried throughout the country, in teams of three (two boys one girl or vice versa), in stages - each three would have to run their 100m or 200m and pass it on to the next three. The batons were sculptured, and the "25 maj" museum has all the federal ones gathered over the years, but then there were local ones which would convene on a show, the size of which would depend on the size of the place - from the modest gathering in a schoolyard where the school's štafeta would be sent to the next place (village or city square), or the few thousand people on a city square where all the local ones would arrive just minutes before the federal one would arrive, then be sent off along its way.
The logistics of the whole endeavour is stunningly complicated, it took coordination of thousands upon thousands of people, and that's in a country which still had areas with low literacy percentages. Yet it worked. Of course there were glitches and of course they weren't in the news.
On 25th of may there would be a huge show on the JNA stadium (i.e. Partizan's, i.e. the army stadium), with several hundreds of participants from all over the country, all of them youth. While there was always some junior team, i.e. eight graders, the majority of them would be aged 18-22 or thereabouts, and they'd camp around the stadium for a few days. There was booze and sex, as per a couple of participant's stories that I got firsthand, but also that big feeling of brotherhood and unity (which was the official slogan, somehow coming true there and then). The culmination of the show was when the federal baton would be carried by some special individual up the stairs to his lodge high at the top rows of the stadium, usually an individual with either some sports medal or at least big tits, the old man loved the youth.
When he died, they tried to keep the tradition up for a few years, until they gave up.
20-II-2021 - 11-IX-2023