National Holiday/School Questionaire.

[Dis]

post more photos of hot greek women dammit!

and first person who posts a picture of Ariana Huffington gets ***** slapped

[Gangerolf]

Well I guess you could call them "school parades involving the flag".

google found some well-formulated info

CELEBRATE NORWAY'S CONSTITUTION DAY
17th of May - Syttende Mai

The 17th of May, Norwegian Constitution Day, is mainly the children’s day. Throughout the country children are parading to celebrate that Norway is an independent country. In contrast to many other countries that celebrate their constitution with military parades, the people of Norway have chosen to show their pride and hope for the future through their children.


Schoolchildren in the whole country are parading on the morning of the 17th of May, regardless of weather conditions, with the Norwegian flag in their hands. They walk behind colorful banners that represent either their school or their class. The 17th of May has always been celebrated this way, except during the second world war when nationalistic activities were forbidden by the Germans. In the major cities it is not unusual for the children's parade to be divided into several parades since there are so many participants.

In front of the parade you will find many large Norwegian flags, usually carried by scouts or older students. Most of the schools have their own school orchestra, playing great music in the parade. The children walk behind their school banners, shouting "Hurrah for the 17th of May", blowing horns and singing national songs.

[Bereta_Eder]

Diss, maybe in a different thread


Gangerolf, alright. I see. Thank you. That fulfills my criteria (national holiday, school parade, flag) but the best pupil doesn't necessairily get the flag. Do you perhaps know how the ones who will carry the first big flags are chosen? Also what is the % of immigrants in Norway approximatively please?

So it is

No=US, Danemark, France (with some exceptions)
Yes=Greece, Norway.

Again thanks for taking the time to find this info.

Waiting for other countries

[Gangerolf]

Originally posted by paiktis22
Diss, maybe in a different thread


Gangerolf, alright. I see. Thank you. That fulfills my criteria (national holiday, school parade, flag) but the best pupil doesn't necessairily get the flag.

Everyone gets to carry a flag

Do you perhaps know how the ones who will carry the first big flags are chosen?

"Volunteers". Carrying the big flags weren't really popular from what I remember from school. They're heavy, you have to walk more or less in line with the other flag bearers to your left and right. It's more fun to walk in the back with a smaller flag.

Also what is the % of immigrants in Norway approximatively please?

between 5 and 7% IIRC. In Oslo it's something like 20%.

What do you need this for, btw?

[Bereta_Eder]

Alright, thanks, I'm covered

There is a controversy risen again about this in Greece because of the repeated refusal of a small remote community's parents association somewhere in Northern Greece to let a foreign pupil and best student in his school to be a flag carrier on the 28th because he doesn't have the Greek citizenship and, they say the flag is a national symbol. The law says that the best pupil, irrelevant of citizenship, will carry the Greek flag if he/she wants to. Actually it's not so much controversy but anger towards this community's parents association for trying to block him from being the flag carrier. All the other pupils who happen not to have the Greek citizenship and are the best pupils at their schools will get to raise the Greek flag, since all of them want to and noone in the school communities where they are objects.

The Odysseas Tsenai case was characterized as an unacceptable intervention with racist characteristics, which cannot be accepted and has obstructed people who feel like Greeks to express themselves, by Government Spokesperson Christos Protopapas. Specifically, responding to related questions, Mr. Protopapas stressed that we must all condemn such phenomena and called all social and political powers to mobilize in order to stop and isolate unacceptable racist phenomena, because such behaviors befit Greece�.

Commenting on Mr. Pagalos' proposal on giving Od. Tsenai Greek citizenship and Mr. Constatopoulos' proposal for the formation of an inter-party committee on the issue, Mr. Protopapas characterized them as interesting proposals and he stressed that the government policy on the incorporation of immigrants into Greek society was known: “We have made the decision to incorporate economic refugees, who have stated their presence, to the Greek society and economy, that is why we gave them green cards and why we said they should work on equal terms with Greeks, their children go to Greek schools and receive healthcare in our hospitals. We either have to accept this and live together or we have to begin creating ghettos.

Due to this controversy I was wondering what goes on in other countries.


And still do, so still waiting for more answers from other countries as well

[axi]

Did you HAVE TO bring this up?

It doesn't matter what you think, it doesn't matter what I think, it doesn't matter what whatevere politician or journalist in this country thinks.

The only thing that matters is that election day is closing and PASOK is using this neat little trick to put the Right in afight with itself. They are hoping that perhaps the fascists will rise to much more than 2%, thus putting a dent in NewDemocracy's 6% lead. Plus it's the best disorientation material ever, just in time when everybody and his nephew are going on a strike. That's why the Minister of Education does not issue a direct order, allowing the boy to carry the flag. They don't want to look like they're arrogantly ignoring the voice of local communities, while in the same time, they are keeping the issue up until the very end.

Because, if you really think about it, why should we care if that particular boy walks a km or so carrying a stick with that particular piece of cloth on it? Only if we start thinking like this will we get rid of all our racism and bigotry.

[Bereta_Eder]

The PASOK's stance on this is well known. It could just force the Nea Mechanionia's parents association to accept the law - but you can create more of the negative effect by doing this. I'm sure you'll agree.

Also don't forget that this is the 2nd time this phenomenon has appeared in Nea Mechanionia. And the previous time there was no elections on the horizon.

So while I more than agree with you that PASOK's using it to get the right wing to fight itself, I think that this is not where the interest in this subject begins or ends.

And no, I don't agree with you that the only way to get rid of our racism and bigotry is to just see the flag as a piece of cloth. I also don't agree to abolish the custom, for many reasons and not ethnocentric in the slighest.

I'm interested in whether other countries have school parades involving flags. I think it might be interesting to know.

[axi]

As you can see, very few countries have such jingoistic customs as we do.

[Bereta_Eder]

Different countries, different routes.
I already knew that we are one of the few countries to have this custom. But it doesn't hurt to actually see what's going on beyond our borders and not just assume that we're unique in this and just scrap it or whatever.

[axi]

Bleh, nobody else cares about your thread, go to sleep...

[Bereta_Eder]

I got answers for some countries though didn't I? And don't tell me you knew about Norway
You're right about the sleep part though. Kalinichta. Will bump it tomorrow.

[Bosh]

The Koreans have to be among the laziest Independence Day celebrators on earth. I saw absolutely nothing being done besides a lot of flags set up on main street.

[Bereta_Eder]

OK.

So we have:

No=US, Danemark, France (with some exceptions) South Korea.

Yes= Norway, Greece

What about the UK, Germany, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Turkey and other countries which I know we have representatives here?!

[FrustratedPoet]

Re: National Holiday/School Questionaire.

Originally posted by paiktis22
Out of curiosity, could you write the name of your country and wether or not you're having school parades during your national holidays? School parades is where each school parades on the streets and the best student of each carries the flag.

We don't have anything like that in England that I am aware of.

[Kropotkin]

Sweden: No, ****ing way!

The national day is june the 6th so most schools are ending about the same time. The end of school means much more for most kids than the nation.