U.N. Day

29 October 2012

            On the morning of October 24 at about 6:30am we heard a commotion outside. This was not an unusual occurrence: on the previous Saturday, for example, we heard a marching drum ensemble playing loudly at about 6:00am to lead a big parade from the Barangka Credit Cooperative. They were celebrating the opening of a new Credit Cooperative building over in Quezon City.

            Since this latest noise included the sounds of drums and glockenspiels I grabbed my camera and went out to the roof of our building to see what was going on. As we found out later from asking around, it was United Nations Day and the Barangka Public School from down the street was having a big parade. It seems like hundreds and hundreds of children had been assigned to represent a particular country in the parade. Two of them were dressed in costume that was meant to represent their nation and they marched behind other students carrying a national flag. The other children behind them would chant U.N.-appropriate slogans such as “We Want Peace! We Want Peace!” or “Let’s Go Ireland/Egypt/U.S.A, etc.” Apparently many elementary schools around Manila did similar activities. Here is a segment of our video that captures only a small part of this seemingly never-ending parade.