Rwanda will start a week of official mourning to mark the 20th anniversary of the country's genocide on Monday.
President Paul Kagame is to light a torch which will burn for 100 days - the length of time the genocide lasted.
A diplomatic row has prompted France's justice minister to pull out of the commemorative events, but Paris says its ambassador will be present.
At least 800,000 people - mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus - died at the hands of Hutu extremists in 1994.
Most of the victims of the genocide were attacked with machetes during 100 days of slaughter that began on 6 April 1994, shortly after Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot down over the Rwandan capital.
Some Christian leaders were implicated in the violence.
An estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in the space of 100 days
The killings ended in July 1994 when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a Tutsi-led rebel movement that entered the country from Uganda, marched on Kigali and seized control of the country.
No 'boycott'
The week of mourning begins with a wreath-laying ceremony at the national genocide memorial followed by the lighting of a flame at the Amahoro Stadium in the capital, Kigali.
The torch has been carried across the country for the past three months, visiting 30 districts and passing from village to village.
International leaders including former British PM Tony Blair, South African President Thabo Mbeki and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon are due to attend the ceremony.
On Sunday, hundreds of people attended a Mass at Sainte-Famille Catholic church in Kigali to remember those who died in the church itself and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, France has denied that it is boycotting the event.
The Mass remembered those who died in the church itself and elsewhere in the country "The ambassador will be present at the ceremony presided over by Paul Kagame," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said.
"There was never any question of a boycott of the ceremonies. Saturday's decision only concerned the justice minister's participation."
Christiane Taubira had cancelled her plans to attend the events in Kigali following an accusation by Mr Kagame that France, as an ally of Mr Habyarimana's government at the time, had participated in the mass killings.
In an interview with the French-language weekly news magazine Jeune Afrique, Mr Kagame denounced the "direct role of Belgium and France in the political preparation for the genocide".
Mr Kagame reportedly said France had a "direct role" in the "political preparation for genocide" 
Rwanda's government has long accused France - an ally of the previous regime - of aiding the genocide The French foreign ministry said the comments went against reconciliation efforts between the two countries.
Rwanda responded by accusing the French government of overreacting.
France has previously acknowledged that serious errors were made during the genocide in Rwanda.
BBC Africa's Kassim Kayira explains the events that shook Rwanda in 1994
A Rwandan commission in 2008 said France was aware of preparations for the genocide and helped train ethnic Hutu militias who participated in killings.
Paris said its forces had helped protect civilians as part of a UN-mandated intervention in Rwanda. But Mr Kagame said French troops had protected the militias carrying out the killings.
In recent years there has been a thaw in relations between the two countries, with a visit by Mr Kagame to Paris in 2011 and the establishment by France of a genocide investigation unit.
Last month, a Paris court sentenced former Rwandan spy chief Pascal Simbikangwa to 25 years in jail for his role in the genocide - the first such conviction in France.
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