The first of September marks the first day of school across Moldova. This past weekend has been a vacation for most everyone with two big holidays- Independence Day and Limba Noastra (Language Day). Unfortunately (but usually fortunately), I live in the independent state of Gagauzia and there was no celebrating to be had... people here are quite proud to speak Gagauzian and Russian (Romanian is the State language) and the people are quite proud to be Gagauzian!
Nevertheless, I experienced my first BIG Moldovan holiday when I went to school this morning with my host family. My 6-year-old host sister Avigail is in the first grade and we spent yesterday searching the nearby regional center for the perfect flowers for her teacher. There was a huge ceremony out in front of the school with all the parents standing around waiting for the students to come out... They came out class by class with all the parents clapping. The ceremony went kind of like this:
After all the classes were out everyone cheered as the kindergartners made their way past everyone...
Introductions of distinguished guests...
Short speeches...
A poem memorized by all the kindergartners...
A skit for the kindergartners telling them how much they will learn...
A little boy is escorted around the square with a torch ...
The 11th grade boys danced with their teachers ...
Flowers are given to the teachers by the students...
A little girl rings the bell to mark the official start of school...
Students walk back into the classrooms along with parents for a short orientation. The 11th graders walked the kindergartners in...
What you'll notice by the pics is the attire... everyone is wearing their best suits and dresses! Even the parents who took them to school looked wonderful. I felt completely awkward in my khakis and windbreaker. The girls wear these HUGE pom poms in their hair. I have no idea why.. it's just a tradition. My tutor showed me pictures of her 35 years ago with the same pom poms!
My youngest sister Lenka is only 4, but she loves to dress up so she was happy to get dolled up for her sister's big day. When we got to school she was pouting though, because she wanted to go to school too!
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