my daughter, R, in her brocade Chinese suit being hugged by her nursery school teacher
United Nations Day was October 24. I’d forgotten all about it until I turn the page on my calendar. And there it was: UN Day. For many years–thirteen to be exact–it had been the biggest school celebration for my three daughters.
The first school they attended was the Makati International Nursery School.
Then they moved on to the Manila International School. Most of their elementary and secondary school years were spent there.
The students at the International School came from every continent except Antarctica. No single national group made up more than about fifteen percent of the whole, so it was hard to find a holiday the school could celebrate.
children representing New Zealand, Norway, and Okinawa
National holidays were out. For American children, that meant no Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Martin Luther King Day, Columbus Day, end-of-summer Labor Day, or even American Thanksgiving.
In a student body of varied religions, celebrating religious holidays didn’t make much sense either.
Since the school was located in the Philippines, a Christian (mainly Catholic) country, it didn’t need to celebrate Christmas and Easter. Reminders of them were everywhere … outside of the school.
Halloween can’t really be described as a national holiday or a true religious holiday. But however you want to describe it, it isn’t universally observed around the world. During our years in the Philippines, if a child had knocked on a door and shouted “trick-or-treat,” the homeowner would have greeted him not with candy but with a look of puzzlement.
my daughter, C, in a Chinese-style dress with her Pakistani friend, N.
The only holiday remaining suitable for an international school to celebrate was United Nations Day.
At my daughters’ schools, the UN Day celebrations often lasted for a week. The older children participated in mock-UN sessions and learned national dances. The younger children brought their mothers in to share games, crafts, and traditional dishes from their respective countries.
The culmination of the week-long festivities was the Parade of Nations.
my daughter, C, in her pioneer bonnet.
Catching up on your blog Nicki. I LOVE all the photos. What a unique life for the Chen family!
Thanks for checking it out, Maureen.
Looking at it from the perspective of a storyteller, all our lives are unique and interesting.
I’ve always been curious about international schools in Asia. When I lived in Singapore, there was an international school five minutes from my condominium, and there students always seemed to be running outside and having a lot of fun – that is, I thought they were allowed to be much noiser than my school, a public, government school.
Lovely to hear that the one your daughters went to was
keen on celebrating cultural diversity, but interesting they weren’t too keen on national holidays – I was thinking that it would be a good way for all students to learn about nations that way? But perhaps the school wanted to put on occasions that all students could relate to in the present day.
The UN day sounds so much fun, and hope the kids got something out of it. The debates in such a diverse group – if the school decided to put them on – stirred up interesting discussions all round.
I suppose all the cultures of the students and teachers from around the world are thrown into the mix of the culture of an international school. And when there’s no dominant culture, it’s anybody’s guess how it will turnout. The children I’ve met from Singapore do seem to be quieter and more studious than most.
For all of us, children, teachers, and parents, UN Day was a symbol of international cooperation and the joy of knowing people from other countries and learning about their customs.
Great memories, Nicki
I’m glad I have photos to remind me. It’s too bad I didn’t take more and better pictures and that they faded so much in photo albums in the humid environment in the Philippines.
This looks way more fun than the celebrations my school did… which always included a mass! (it was a catholic school).
I can’t vouch for what the kids felt, but the moms always enjoyed the festivities. It was inspiring for our kids to be part of a peaceful, cooperative international environment.
We forget how differently others look at our world, Nicki. Nice memories 🙂
Jo, at least in England, you have other European countries nearby. With an ocean on either side, we Americans can easily forget about the rest of the world.
Very cool. I never knew there was a UN day. I think most American kids now have an International Day at school (probably they give out Swedish fish?), but I don’t know if they have a parade of nations like the Olympics. What a great opportunity!
United Nations Day is on October 24 because the UN was founded on that day in 1945. They started celebrating the day in 1948. In 1971, the UN General Assembly recommended that all countries celebrate Oct. 24 as a public holiday. I wonder how many countries followed up on that.
The Parade of Nations worked well at the International School since many of the students had cool national costumes. Koreans had some of the best. Americans didn’t know quite what to do. They had cowboys, hula dancers, pioneers … I remember one resourceful kid (or parent) came up with a Statue of Liberty costume.
Your daughters had a wonderful opportunity to understand diversity. I like this idea of UN day. It’s inclusive and would involve children researching their heritage. It’s better than some of the holidays we do observe.
UN Day would be a good day for American kids to research and share the countries their ancestors came from. With all the interest in ancestry these days, maybe they already do that. I forgot about Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day. The holidays we observe in elementary school always stick with us. No one wants to get pinched on St. Patrick’s Day because they forgot to wear green. And remember the “mailboxes” we made out of shoe boxes and all the little valentines we brought for the kids in our class?
I loved Valentine’s day more when I was a kid than when I was an adult. All those cheap cards we gave to each other were cool.
I agree, Kate. A mailbox on every desk. Such fun.
Celebrating UN Day seems like a nice reminder that there are other nations in the world. I wish we celebrated UN Day.
As usual, it’s delightful to see your photos.
If I remember right, after we moved back to the United States, my daughters’ high school also took part in mock United Nations sessions. I don’t know if it coincided with UN Day. The first Model United Nations was held at St. Lawrence University in 1949. Now Model United Nations is practiced in middle schools, high schools, and universities all over the world.