October 29:  Happy Republic Day!

When thinking about 29 October, the first things that came to our minds were the holiday, flags, and decorating our classrooms.  We hung flags in our classrooms and in the corridors of our school.  Then our teachers asked us what we thought was the meaning of “Republic”.  First we thought a bit and then we noticed that our teachers were holding a storybook.  It was called “The Forest Republic”.  The animals in the forest want to be safe and to live a happier life.  They want to choose a leader, but they cannot figure out how to do this.  Thinking about how the animals should choose their leader, we began to wonder how we would do it.  And, before we knew it, we found ourselves at the ballot box.  First, we discussed the candidates and learned what they would do if they were selected as the leader of the forest.  We thought about this and then made our choice.  We each took a ballot, went behind the curtain, and marked a vote for our candidate.  We came out from behind the curtain, folded our ballots and then put them into the ballot box.  After everyone had voted, our teachers opened the ballots one by one, showed them to us, and tallied the results.  The leader with the most votes was selected.  This is how a republic works, we realized.  With a big margin, we choose the leader of the Forest Republic who protected all the animals’ rights, who was concerned with the happiness of not one, but all of the animals; and who was fair to all. 

Atatürk announced the formation of the Turkish Republic on 29 October 1923. He said that every person living in Turkey was smart and was able to choose a leader.  We learned from our parents that they choose the most honest people like themselves to be our leaders.  We are grateful to Atatürk for giving us this freedom.

Then it was time to get ready for our Republic Day ceremony.  All week, we listened to patriotic poems and songs.  We all learned how the ceremony was done, and the proper way to show our respect.  We all came to the ceremony dressed in red and white.  When it was time to start all classes gathered in our sports hall. We were happy to take our places.  To remember this exciting day, we had our photograph taken in our red and white clothes.  Every time we look at this photo, we will remember the excitement of this celebration, as will anyone else who looks at it.

We began the ceremony with a moment of silence for Atatürk and then we sang the Turkish national anthem.  The MC for the ceremony was Çiçek Yalçınkaya, a teacher from our Blue Star class.  She explained that the freedom of choice was given to us by Atatürk.  First, class by class, we excitedly recited our poems. Then, as a whole school, we sang our republic songs together.  During the week, we had made signs explaining about the republic.  We left the sports hall singing the 10. Yıl march.  We headed back to our classroom: our class sign at the front while we followed waving Turkish flags.  Together we said, “Long live the republic!”, remembering the sense of unity, gratitude and respect that we have for Atatürk.  With this enthusiasm, excitement and togetherness, happy Republic Day!