Fête du Drapeau

Tomorrow, May 18th, is Flag Day.  Flag Day is a national holiday here in Haiti.  Below are some quick facts on the Haitian flag.

• First Haitian Flag was adopted on May 18, 1803
• Revolutionary leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines created the flag by ripping out the white in a French flag

• The blue represents vigilance, loyalty, perseverance and justice, and the union of black Haitians and mulatto Haitians
• The red symbolizes hardiness, bravery, strength and valour
• The coat of arms in the middle of the flag consists of a trophy of weapons ready to defend freedom
• The coat of arms also has a royal palm that symbolizes independence.  The palm is topped by the Cap of Liberty
• On the white scroll on the flag is the nations motto; it reads L'Union Fait La Force ("Unity Makes Strength")

At school today we celebrated flag day with the students.  The older classes started of the morning with some trivia about the flag.  Grade 3 & 4 were very evenly matched!  There was lot's of cheering and yelling going on down there as the classes displayed their intelligence.

And around 10 we started our parade!  This is the first year we have done a parade in the community and judging by how much the students enjoyed it, I don't think it will be our last.  Roodvens (Grade 3 teacher) has been preparing the students for the parade for a couple of weeks.  Throughout the last couple of weeks during recreation as well as Phys ed you could hear and see the students learning the chants,  songs and routines that go along with the flag day celebrations.  This morning the school headed around the block and down the hill waving their haitian flags and proudly singing about their flag, their independence, their country.  Hopefully we'll have a short video for you next week showing you their fine performance but for now pictures will have to do.

Practicing before we left the school yard

Marching out into the community

Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right

Roodvens, proudly leading the parade

L'Union Fait La Force!