Africa-Press – Seychelles. A colourful and lively book parade brought much gaiety and a splash of colour to the somewhat somber and rainy Saturday morning in Victoria.
The event formed part of the National Council for Children’s Festival Zanfan (Children’s Festival) which started on June 1. Its aim is to promote reading as a fun activity and encourage children to be children as per the theme ‘Les zanfan reste zanfan’.
A total of 22 primary schools and over 400 children took part in the parade.
The children were dressed up in various costumes and characters based on the books that they had chosen.
The parade started at the International Conference Centre (ICCS) at around 10am going along Rue de la Possession, past the Clock Tower and the Anglican Church, along Royal Street past the Police Station, past the Hindu Temple along Quincy Street, down Market Street, past the Victoria Market, along the side street that leads to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, turning right and down Albert Street past Deepam Cinema, past the Taxi Stand and Clock Tower, ending on the grounds of the National Museum of History.
At intervals during the procession, the groups took the opportunity to perform a small part of the story.
The parade included stories such as Cinderella, The Piper of Hamlin, The Three Little Pigs, Peter Pan, among many others.
Two pupils from the Beau Vallon school, Khaleed Jeanne and Nira Herminie, said they enjoyed the parade very much.
“It was really fun, and also books are very important and they also contain beautiful new words that we can learn,” said Khaleed.
Margaret Vel, the performing arts teacher at Beau vallon school, said that Beau Vallon primary chose to represent Cinderella because the majority of the pupils at the school picks up this book in the library and she saw it fit to consider it as the best option.
“The pupil’s participation was beyond expectation, they did really good because it wasn’t an easy task to parade around and perform so I greatly applaud them and also the organisers that made it possible,” she said.
The chief executive of NCC, Yasmin Umarji, said she is very proud of the turnout and thanks all the school for their participation.
“At NCC we thought that maybe instead of having separate activities for World Book Day like in the past years, why not gather all the schools together to display their favourite books,” she said.
She adds that this would show the children that books are important and interesting.
“When they dress up as these characters it helps them develop a higher order of thinking skills,” she said.
She concluded by saying that with the success of this parade and the amazing participation from the schools, NCC will be looking into doing it again next year.
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