21 of Feb in Bangladesh

The 21 of February is a very important holiday for the people of Bangladesh. They celebrate their mother language day.

For those of you who do not know what that is, let me explain.



On the 21 of February there was a protest in Bangladesh. The reason that people were protesting was because they wanted the right to speak their mother language. Bangladesh at this point in time was part of Pakistan, and they wanted to make the national language Urdu (the language of Pakistan), but the majority of the people spoke Bengali.



There was a protest in the streets of Dhaka. People pored out in droves to show their support for their national language. Because of the mass of people, the government stepped in. There was a miscommunication, and shots were fired. This lead to the shooting and killing of many people of now Bangladesh. Several of the main people in the protest were students and professors from the University of Bangladesh.



They were killed and are today honored because of their valor and fighting for their native language. Take a look at this video and see the amount of people that commemorate this event.

Today it is customary to place flowers on the national monument in remembrance of these "freedom fighters" as they are now called.

You will see the monument that has several pillars and a big red circle in the middle. The circle is a symbol of the sun and its importance to this region. It is colored red to symbolize the blood of those that have given their lives for this country. The pillars represent the people that stood up for their beliefs. (This is what I have been told by several people).

If you look at the first picture you will see Mr. T and I with one of the original freedom fighters. He told us about what happened on the 21 of Feb. It was amazing to see this gentleman's passion and his spirit. Just being able to spend some time with him was enough for me. I enjoyed talking with him very much.