On the evening of 25 March 1988 several thousand people gathered on Hviezdoslavovo námestie holding lit candles. They were asking for bishops to be appointed to the empty Slovak dioceses, for religious freedom and for civil rights, and they stood in silence. The police broke the gathering up with water cannon, dogs and batons, drove cars into the crowd and arrested people in the surrounding streets. The candle demonstration was the largest public protest against the regime in Czechoslovakia since the end of the 1960s, and its importance is exactly where it happened: in Bratislava, eighteen months before Prague, by people who had decided that standing still in the dark holding a candle was worth being beaten for.Večer 25. marca 1988 sa na Hviezdoslavovom námestí zišlo niekoľko tisíc ľudí so zapálenými sviečkami. Žiadali, aby boli obsadené prázdne slovenské biskupstvá, žiadali náboženskú slobodu a občianske práva — a stáli mlčky. Polícia zhromaždenie rozohnala vodnými delami, psami a obuškami, vnikla do davu autami a v okolitých uliciach zatýkala. Sviečková manifestácia bola najväčším verejným protestom proti režimu v Československu od konca 60. rokov a jej význam je práve v tom, kde sa odohrala: v Bratislave, rok a pol pred Prahou, a urobili ju ľudia, ktorí sa rozhodli, že stáť potme so sviečkou v ruke stojí za to, aj keď za to dostanú obuškom.
