Mother Language Day

February 21st: International Mother Language Day is a holiday that I never before celebrated but intend to continue celebrating from here on out. A grade 12 student at our school decided that CTS should have a celebration because this is the most important holiday in Bangladesh.

The history behind the holiday, as explained to me by my grade 7 students, (and verified by a UN sponsored website) is that when Pakistan separated from India, Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan known as East Pakistan. In 1952, Pakistan decided that Urdu would be the only official language spoken and people were not allowed to speak Bengali. Students at the University of Dhaka led a protest and the police opened fire killing 4 students. Eventually Bangladesh became it's own independent country with Bengali as it's official language and every year they honor the martyrs who gave their life to protect their language and culture. In 1999, the UN declared Mother Language Day an international holiday because all people should have the right to speak their mother language and celebrate their culture.

Our names in Bangla (Bengali)

This was a pretty cool holiday and historic event to learn about as I am in the middle of teaching my Grade 7's about assimilation and the colonization of Canada. They definitely connect to the importance of preserving one's culture and being allowed the choice to assimilate to a new culture or not.  

Student drawing mendi (henna) on my hand

Look at those crazy beautiful designs!

So myself and another teacher assisted the students in organizing a day long event including traditional singing and dancing, learning how to write our names in Bengali, showcasing art projects, getting henna tattoos , facepaint, and kareoke...who knew that was a Bengali tradition?

It was a great day for school wide community building and we pulled it off-barely-but that's how things are done here-last minute and chaotic. But even with all its imperfections, everyone had a great day and it was all worth it. Especially for moments like this...

Rocking out to Bruno Mars...or One Direction...one of the two.
And all in traditional dress: Shalwar kamiz, punjabi, and sari  

  Pretty sure our students think we are the coolest teachers ever...wouldn't you?