Still, your country reaching its 71st year of sovereignty can't go without something, We still have to go to school, it still counts as an effective day, so not going will result in score deductions and what not even though technically it is a holiday in the calendar.
I wake up, as usual at a couple minutes before 5 o'clock, get ready, and take off at 6. We still have to go to class for attendance for reasons already explained. And then its off to the field for the ceremony.
It's like the usual ceremony, every Wednesday, except a little more serious, as well as more people. Usually its only the senior high or junior high or (much rarer) the elementary students doing the regular ceremonies, but on this day, the Senior High students (me included) wearing grey vests, the 9th grade Junior high students wearing blue vests, a couple dozen of select elementary students wearing red vests that will be doing the singing, the teachers with full blue uniform, and, the ceremonial troop, they wear some kind of white outfits with some red in there (I can't really describe it too well), not usual, since the ceremonial troop always wear standard uniforms on regular ceremonies.
Everyone goes to the field with the flag pole, which isn't big enough to hold all 1000-ish of us. So the junior high and teachers splinter off to a part of the field that is fenced off but still adjacent to the field wth the pole. As class leader I no longer have authority, since it is moved to the ceremonial troops and teachers shouting commands. After a couple minutes, the only thing that can be heard is the occasional sound of birds on the crisp blue and pink morning sky, and some passing vehicles.
As class leader I get a first row position, one of the ceremonial troop is right to my left, behind me is my close friend (whose name I wont mention), and to my right is a girl from my class that complained about her being in first row, yeah sorry I cant take your position on first row of the girls column because I am doing it for the boys.
It all starts as usual, the troop leader enters the field and takes charge, then the elder- one of the teachers, in this case the principal of junior high, takes center stage, her adjutant being a friend from my class. The command to raise the flag is given, and a 3x5 column of people with the flag bearer in the middle moves into position. They move swiftly, in unison, mechanically. The flag bearer hangs the flag in position, well, almost, one side is upside down, but still, since he didn't say 'Flag Ready!' yet, it's not exactly a mistake, another 2 people raise the flag. Everyone else salutes while singing the national anthem. After this we have a moment of silence, not exactly silent since the elementaries are singing the moment of silence song.
After those, we are put at ease, the elder gives us her speech. I didn't really remember it for long. Something about making our work into reality, the ending is about when our country is 100 years old, we will be the machines of this country.....My friend behind me made some comments about the speech, I didn't really do anything about it.
We were put back into attention, and the next order in line of the ceremony, which is the reading of the opening of the 1945 constitution, and then the reading of the philosophical foundation of the country, then the reading of the proclamation text, and finally the reading of the student pledges. It does pay to memorize them since they do come in civics lessons, but other than that, can't really say much, other than its just protocols.
Next in line is singing of a national song and the school anthem. The school anthem has 3 verses, so its pretty long compared to the national song which is done in about 45 seconds. Finally after the singing, the final prayer, led by the head of elementary curriculum that is paying a visit to our school, which also used to be principal at our school about a decade ago, yeah she got promoted. The elder leaves the field after we salute, then the leader leaves the field, and we are put at ease.
Yeah it should be over after that, but I am also apparently in the team responsible for the equipment for the celebration which will take place the next day, and we got some jobs to do, like putting up some banners for the celebrations tomorrow, and placing markers, etc. So I actually got home much later than the ceremony ending. But still, its a shorter day than usual, so I get more time at home
