Indian Independence Day

Yesterday was August 15^th, India’s Independence Day!  It was a glorious, sunny (HOT!) day – perfect for an Independence Day celebration!  The local schools put together the festivities.  The kids have done little class work the past couple of weeks as they have been preparing for the celebration.

The celebration took place at the soccer field next to Sombaria Senior Secondary School (the blue building up on the hill).  Everyone comes out for the festivities.

Some people set up these little shops around the field to sell snacks – cold drinks, chips, homemade momos, etc. 

Here is the stage where all the important guests sit. 

Everyone else just grabs a spot where they can!

Each school has a group of students that will march in the parade.  To start they were all standing in formation on one side of the field 

The chief guest (a local politician) raised the Indian flag to get things started. 

Then he was led over to the lines of students to inspect them

Then the drummers started and the parade began! 

The parade consisted of all of the students from the different schools marching once around the field.  Quite different than an America-style parade, but actually more interesting than I expected.  There were four different schools in the parade.  The one with the most people was Sombaria Senior Secondary School – the only government (public) secondary school in the area.

Here are some of the students from Sombaria Senior Secondary School making the first turn on the parade route. 

Then came Sunrise Academy – this is where our niece Snowly goes to school 

Here’s Snowly!  Looking exhausted (they’ve been standing in the hot sun for hours by now), but still finding the energy to march! 

Then came Model English School 

And Woodstock High School, looking classy in their pink plaid skirts! 

Lastly came the drummers, made up of members from all of the schools. 

Here’s our niece Marina (with the glasses on).  She was one of the drummers! 

Once everyone made it all the way around the field and back to their original spot, the parade was finished and the students were able to take a rest!

Here’s Passang and our friend Solomon trying to keep cool under the shade of an umbrella 

Then came the dances!  Each school put on a different dance. 

Sunrise Academy did a routine making various designs on the field.  It was pretty cool, but I think it would have looked even better from up above. 

This is a Nepali dance from Sombaria Senior Secondary School 

Woodstock High School did a drama about India’s independence 

Here are some troops getting ready for battle :) 

Here is the Model English School performing a Lepcha dance (SF:  the Lepcha are one of the tribes of the Himalayas and one of the indigenous peoples of Sikkim). 

This one was my favorite – the Anden Primary School performed a Sherpa dance.  

These little Sherpa were so cute! 

After dancing it was time for the two soccer matches, but by that point I was hot, sunburnt, and tired so I decided to head on back home.  The whole day was a lot of fun!  Very different than a Fourth of July celebration in the US (the whole time I was craving a hot dog and seriously expecting to smell a bbq at any moment!), but still a great celebration.  I look forward to doing it again next year!