Haitian president Rene Preval asked his people on Friday to "dry their eyes" and rebuild their shattered country a month after the catastrophic January 12th earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people.
One month to the day after the magnitude 7 quake wrecked the capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding towns and cities, Mr Preval made his first live address to the impoverished Caribbean nation as it began a period of national mourning for the quake victims.
Officials said the six-day period would include national prayers and then end with what they called a "celebration of life" looking to the future, and would include a public party in the capital's main square with musicians and artists.
Mr Preval said Haitians' courage was sustaining their government as it looks for ways to relieve the suffering of hundreds of thousands of hurt and homeless quake victims.
"Haitians, the pain is too heavy for words to express. Let's dry our eyes to rebuild Haiti," Mr Preval said at a ceremony held on a flower-decked platform at the University of Notre Dame's nursing school in the capital.
"Haitian people who are suffering, the courage and strength you showed in this misfortune are the sign that Haiti cannot perish. It is a sign that Haiti will not perish," said Preval, wearing a black armband over his white shirt to signal mourning.
The ceremony marked a pause in the government's recovery effort from Haiti's worst natural disaster. The quake killed about 212,000 people, according to the government, and Haitian officials, along with international aid organizations, are trying to
figure out how to house and care for 1 million people living in tents and makeshift shelters in the streets.
"People cannot die. People are souls and souls cannot die," said Max Beauvoir, Haiti's high priest of voodoo, who sat beside Haiti's Roman Catholic archbishop, Joseph Lafontant, during the service. "On January 12th, 200,000 people, or probably more, passed away. It's not that they died, but they traveled to another life."
Among those who attended the ceremony were prime minister Jean-Max Bellerive, numerous government ministers, and Senate president Kely Bastien, who was pulled from the rubble of the parliament building and had surgery for a serious foot injury.
He hobbled in on crutches and wore sandals to the formal ceremony.
Mr Preval also asked Haitians to pray for former US President Bill Clinton, who left the hospital in the United States on Friday after surgery to insert two stents to clear a blocked artery in his heart.
Mr Clinton, the United Nations special envoy to Haiti, was appointed along with former President George W. Bush by US President Barack Obama to direct Haitian relief efforts.
"We are with his family in the same way he was with us through our misfortune," Mr Preval said.
Reuters