Children's Day

It’s always nice to get an extra day off of from school, which is exactly what has happened today for Children’s Day. Now I’m not entirely sure what this holiday is about, except celebrating children. As far as I can tell from what I picked up at our assembly on Friday (Woohoo! We didn’t have to come in for just an hour on Monday for an assembly.) this is sort of a dual holiday. Today has something to do with the first meeting of the Turkish National Assembly. Okay, according to a small description I’ve found from my new teacher’s guide “Ataturk was elected president of the new National Assembly on April 23, 1920. This date is honored as ‘National Sovereignty and Children’s Day.’ Ataturk presented this day to the children of Turkey only. He believed in children as tomorrow’s young men and women: the hope for the future.” Since then I believe that the day has gotten tied in with the UN’s Children’s Day (there is a big celebration going on in Antalya this year with kids from around the world). All I know is that I’m happy to celebrate it and what feels like the real start to spring. Of course our assembly on Friday had some kids in it. A couple of groups from the elementary school came over and we watched them perform a Vienna waltz, some dance with tambourines and a couple of songs. The least you can say is that at least they’re cute at that age.