Lebanon's Independence Day

On Monday, the 21st of November 2011, at 11:20 AM, the Armenian Catholic Mesrobian High School’s extracurricular activities section organized, in the schoolyard, a ceremony dedicated to Lebanon’s Independence Day.

Headed by the school principal Mr. Gregoire Kaloust, all the students along with the teachers and the administrative staff as well as the ladies of the parents’ committee sang the Lebanese national anthem to open the ceremony dedicated to Lebanon’s Independence Day. The opening speech was made by Rita Boghossian, a 12th grade student, who said « Every year, we celebrate this special day of the Independence of Lebanon that is stable, improved and developed. This is the day that links the past to the present and inspires us with faith and hope of having a brighter and a better future. It was this day when Lebanon’s Independence was declared and all the Lebanese people were proud of that. And it was this day when many martyrs had died in order to take the country back for us, the people who will improve Lebanon in future. So, today I ask all the Lebanese who love their country to not ignore this independence and to make it meaningful and to dedicate themselves to it ». Rita Boghossian’s speech was followed by the two performances of the school choir who sang Armenian and Arabic songs dedicated to Lebanon.

Then, Rita Boghossian invited the speaker of the day, the school’s head teacher Mr. Abdel Massih Abou Elias to make his speech. Mr. Abdel Massih Abou Elias talked particularly about the difficult and miserable past of the Lebanese state as well as about the wars in which the brave martyrs had died in order to attain this independence. He also continued saying «Lebanon is an independent country blessed with dignity and pride. From its ancient times, many barbarous races had tried to govern this beautiful country, but they had failed. As Lebanese, we had many martyrs who had died in order to preserve our independence that is one of the highest human values. We know that the Armenian people had suffered also during history and many martyrs had died in order to preserve their faith, history and independence». The speaker of the day ended his speech, saying « We live independence every day in order to live a worthy life in a country that is really democratic. For 68 years, we were hopeful that one day all these efforts will let the people support the Lebanese army so that this army can be strengthened and can accomplish its mission firmly in order to keep our holy country always independent ».

At the end of Mr. Abdel Massih Abou Elias’s speech, the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th grades students’ groups of the elementary section recited poems successively. Then, a 12th grade student Cynthia Arapgirlian sang a song along with the school choir by closing, in this way, the ceremony dedicated to Lebanon’s Independence Day.