India celebrates its Independence Day on August 15th. On August 15th 1947, India was granted sovereignty by the British Empire. This coincided with the Partition, which divided India into the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The purpose of the division was to create a country for the Hindu majority (India), and a country for the Muslim majority (Pakistan). An interesting note is that Pakistan's Independence Day is on August 14th and India's on the 15th. This was done so that the Viceroy Mountbatten could attend ceremonies in both countries.
On the 15th of August, our church in Mohali celebrates Independence Day by raising the Indian flag in the morning, and then having a youth meeting and lunch. Here are some pictures from our Independence Day celebration.
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| The flag of India |
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| Ready for flag hoisting |
We decided to do a race, where two teams had to follow clues that would lead them to 10 different locations nearby our church. Some of the clues were at shops in the market, others at the homes of church members, and one was in the dorm of the college. It took me hours to come up with the clues and to organize the whole thing...it took about an hour for the teams to complete it and return to the church, which was the last stop. I guess they enjoyed it, since everyone said they wished it had been longer. Longer! Hmmm..maybe I should start now getting ready for next year!
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| Visiting the barber...one stop on the race list..this barber has a chair and mirror set up under a tree near our house where he cuts hair all day. But not on Tuesday, Tuesday is the holiday for all barbers. |
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| Another stop..a church members home |
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| Last stop...the church |
After the race, the young people sang some songs and listened to a message from the Word of God. We also gave out prizes to those who had learned the most verses during our summer Bible memory contest. They were required to memorize Psalm 119 first, and after that they could recite other verses from the Bible for extra points. Six of them memorized all 176 verses of Psalm 119. Congratulations Pooja, Naomi, Alyssa, Sahil, Ritu, and Melody!
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| Kara checking out some of the prizes. |
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| Preparing lunch |
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| Serving the food |
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| Don't judge by looks...the food was good! |
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| Time to clean up...next time I think we should go for the styrofoam plates! |
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Happy 65th Independence Day India!
After the race, the young people sang some songs and listened to a message from the Word of God. We also gave out prizes to those who had learned the most verses during our summer Bible memory contest. They were required to memorize Psalm 119 first, and after that they could recite other verses from the Bible for extra points. Six of them memorized all 176 verses of Psalm 119. Congratulations Pooja, Naomi, Alyssa, Sahil, Ritu, and Melody!
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