14 Things you must Tell Your Kids about Indian Republic Day

With activities that take up so much of our time, we miss out on the basic information that should be conveyed to our kids about India and our love for our country.

So if this is the first Republic Day where your kid would have an ability to understand its importance, here we have a list of quick and simple facts that your little one MUST know about Republic Day!

1. Republic Day of India is celebrated in remembrance of the day when India’s Constitution came into force.

2. Unlike what we see on TV, It’s a three-day celebration, ending on the 29th of January.

3. The Constitution is a Handwritten Document, with two original copies, in Hindi and English respectively, preserved in helium filled cases in the Parliament.

4. The Indian constitution is the Longest in the World – with 448 articles and has been adopted after reading constitutions of countries across the world. The concepts of Liberty, equality and Fraternity have come from the Constitution of the French, the five year plans have been adopted from the constitution of USSR, and so on.

5. Drafting the constitution was a humongous task as it took Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and his team 2 years and 11 months to completely write the entire constitution. (Imagine writing such a long book on your own!)

6. Since its completion, it was signed off by 308 members of the assembly by the 24th of January, 1950. It became effective from the 26th of January, 1950 and has seen 98 amendments since then.

7. A majority of national awards like the Padma Bhushan Award, The Param Veer Chakra, and several others are felicitated on the Republic Day.

8. The Republic Day is addressed by the President, while the Independence Day is addressed by the Prime Minister.

9. On the Republic Day, the Prime Minister places a wreath on the monument named Amar Jawan Jyoti as a respect to all Martyrs who sacrificed their lives during the Indian Independence Movement.

10. India’s Motto was selected by Madan Mohan Malviya and has been selected from the Mundaka Upanishad from Atharvaveda. It was later on translated in Hindi by Abid Ali in 1911.

11. Rabndranath Tagore wrote the National Anthem for India – as we all know – Jana Gana Mana. It was originally written in Bangla, and was later translated in Hindi by Abid Ali in 1911. It was adopted as the national anthem only in 1950.

12. On the Republic Day, the President of India hoists the National Flag and a respect of a 21 – Gun salute is presented by firing of arms and canons by the Indian Army and the Navy.

13. On the 3rd day of the Republic Day Celebration, a beating retreat is celebrated by the bands of Army, Navy as well as the Air Force, marking the end of the celebrations.

14. The English Hymn “Abide by me” is played on the Republic day as it is considered to be a favourite song of Mahatma Gandhi

Also read more about: Fun ways to celebrate Republic Day with Kids, Guidelines to attend Republic Day’s Parade at Rajpath, Tricolour Dessert Ideas