As they do every year, Israelis on Monday made the incredible transition from deep mourning to bounding joy as they first marked the nation's Remembrance Day for its fallen soldiers before moving immediately into Independence Day.
Nearly every Israeli has lost a family member of friend to war or terrorism, meaning that for nearly every Israeli, Remembrance Day is a very solemn time.
At sunset on Monday, those same Israelis burst into celebration over what the sacrifice of their loved ones had purchased - a safe and secure Jewish homeland after millennia of exile and persecution.
As usual, the Israeli army imposed a blanket closure on the Palestinian-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria to prevent Muslim terrorists from marring the celebrations.
On the eve of its 62nd Independence Day, the population of the State of Israel stood at just over 7.5 million people, 75 percent of whom are Jewish.