Celebrating school remembrance days “rebooted”

Historical remembrance days and related celebrations are part of a culture of remembrance and are characterized by processes such as the typical use of language in speeches or songs (Huszár, Prikler, forthcoming), and possibly the inclusion of tools reflecting the historical age or nature of remembrance, such as wreaths, flags, etc. Participation in such events is also a form of socialization, especially when it takes place at school and is planned, organ-ized, and conducted by teachers together with the children. In socialist Hungary, by all means school celebrations had to symbolize the unity of the Hungarian people under the leadership of the Hungarian Socialist Party. This purpose was achieved with the use of in dividual symbols, such as perhaps the most prominent red tie of the schoolchildren pioneers and the blue tie of the so-called “little drummers”. The celebrations followed a unified scenario, leaving little room for creativity in both the organization and the program. After the change of regime, public holidays celebrated in school also changed. Hereunder, the authors put forward a hypothesis that, following new research findings in pedagogy and child psychology, as well as the changes in subject didactics, a new process has been launched, intended to make school festivities national memorial group, and the students’ knowledge and awareness of the historical background of a given celebration were scrutinized. Finally, the authors propose to initiate more experiential learning opportunities related to school memorial days.

nr 2/2020 (50) Celebrating school remembrance days "rebooted" historical event one remembers and in what form (Burke, 1997). This culture of remembrance determines which events and symbols or role models can be positive and identity-creating or serve as unit-makers within a given society. A culture of democratic remembrance is characterized by multiple perspectives and a scientifically grounded, objective approach. Celebrations are part of this culture of symbol and memory and represent a connection between the past and the present, as well as display state ideology within a narrower context, such as family, institution, or local community. While the first celebrations take place in a family circle (e.g. Christmas, birthdays or the Easter celebrations, etc.), national holidays appear as children's age is advancing.
Youngsters, but often also adults, cannot recall much of the past from their own personal experience. Knowledge and impressions come from secondary sources, historical descriptions, possibly contemporary sources, vs. in the case of children very commonly from adults, such as family members, acquaintances, relatives, and teachers. They celebrate with these people collectively and learn how adults behave, what culture they have, and what example they set for them. Because children cannot fail to imitate, the experienced events become their guidelines for the future. This information helps build personal connection to a particular holiday, which depends on our knowledge, emotions, maturity, and value system, and evolves as a result. Ultimately, these insights decide what significance each particular holiday conveys to individuals, how they portray it, how they reconstruct and co-construct for themselves the given historical event. In this sense, celebration is usually an act of socialization that begins in the family, and continues in kindergarten and in school in different contexts. We gain new experiences of how we celebrate in a community. Values, perceptions, and forms of life, communication within a group, dress code, language use, and social behaviours encountered in group interactions take on meanings that indicate the boundaries of a group, a group membership, and roles, because these common events promote the formation of group identity and strengthen group cohesion (Beke, 2003).
Linguistic (including poems, songs, speech) and non-linguistic or visual signs (e.g. clothing, symbols, posture, facial expression, and gestures) form an image during the ceremony that affects those present, conveying a communication offer. Whether this communication is successful depends on a number of factors (Einecke, 1995), such as external circumstances, i.e. place, date, objects, symbols emphasizing the nature of the celebration, or clothes that the children should wear. The atmosphere also plays a significant role, e.g. being obliged to stand for a long time and be quiet, or having one's role appointed or freely chosen. All of this affects both students and adults who prepare and implement the plot and content, and strongly determines whether the message of the ceremony reaches the children. In most cases, we are talking about well-prepared, practiced, consciously directed actions. Usually, the program is carefully planned in advance by the teacher, and the goal is to follow the script without any improvisation or change. In addition to specific activities, such as moving on stage or in the hall, there are non-verbal activities that can only be partially planned (e.g., facial expressions or gestures) and partially not (e.g., smile, crackle, cough). Symbolic actions, rituals, appear at every memorial day and play a prominent role, which can mean either the end or culmination of a celebration, such as the raising of a flag or the solemn carrying and placement of a symbolic object. We expect from these activities, and this is already reflected in the planning as an objective, to have a solemn, pathetic, touching or moving impact on the participants. In addition to the visual, tactile, and kinaesthetic channels, the auditory channel also plays a role. The linguistic actions of the performers, be it singing or reciting poetry or prose, must correspond to the level of knowledge of the audience so that they could understand the message sent. Organizing conversation, such as the right to speak, the breaks, and exchanging verbal actions, serves to maintain children's interest. Language rituals in the program or program management help children follow the content, they can mark the beginning, the end of the program, or a change in topic.
At the same time, they also carry with them the possibility of boring the audience if they last too long. Children are the recipients of school ceremonies, so they have to be appropriate, the scenes, the plot, and the content must be designed with age-specific characteristics in mind. Children should be given the opportunity to form their own opinions, which can be contradictory, and the program should encourage them to think creatively and critically. Students, as the members of a community, participate in a celebration ritual to see if they find it positive, and this depends on the message and communication of the program, the dramaturgy, the aesthetic experiences, and of course on the role of the participants in the program. Celebrating national holidays brings children closer to history, awakens original historical events and brings them closer to the present day, allowing children to build a connection to a historical event (Beke, 2003). The ceremony will facilitate the presentation of events by means of an outside-the-classroom process, if the program is based on the appropriate pedagogical, psychological, and artistic foundations, and takes into account the age of the children.

National commemoration policy through holidays celebrated by children
Different political systems decide which of the past holidays convey the "right" and "just" thoughts and memories to citizens, based on their perspectives. Therefore, memorial and remembrance days were exchanged from time to time. In Hungary, before the change of regime, i.e. the autumn of 1989, public holidays included commemorating such events as: 21 March 1919 Proclamation of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, 4 April 1945 Liberation of Hungary, or 7 November 1917 outbreak of the Revolution in Russia. After 1990, Hungarians by law no longer celebrate them. Commemorating the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, which broke out on 23 October, was introduced as a national holiday (Barna, 2018). On 23 October 1956, the Hungarian Revolution began with a youth demonstration in Budapest (Tarján, n.d.b). This movement grew into an uprising against the Stalinist dictatorship and the social problems it caused. It was also a war of independence against the Soviet occupation. To reiterate, after 1989, democratic, anti-communist traditions were strengthened, while before 1989 relations with the Soviet Union, anti-fascism, and communism were emphasized.
The 2012 Decree of the Ministry of Human Resources on the celebration and commemoration of the school and kindergarten school-years (20/2012, Net Jogtár), currently in force, prescribes the following days of remembrance: "War of Independence of the Hungarian Nation, Commemoration of Our Martyrs of the Past (6 October, the Martyrs' Day of Arad), the Day of the Victims nr 2/2020 (50) Celebrating school remembrance days "rebooted" of Dictatorships (25 February), the Holocaust (16 April), the Day of National Unity (4 June)". In the following we give a historical outlook and briefly describe the background of the selected events. After the Hungarian Revolution and the War of Independence came to an end, a court headed by General Julius von Haynau sentenced 13 generals to death. They were executed in Arad (now Romania) on 6 October 1849. In the Hungarian national memory, they are regarded both the heroes and the martyrs. Besides the the Hungarians, among the generals sentenced to death were Germans, Croats, Poles, and Serbs from the noble and simple families. A century later, a man from a simple farming family, Béla Kovács, became the emblem of the Independent Smallholders' Party, after being elected as the Minister of Agriculture, and stood up to the dictatorial aspirations of Mátyás Rákosi and his Hungarian Communist Party. At the request of Rákosi, the infamous Soviet People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) arrested him by surprise, kidnapped and deported to the Soviet Union, from where Béla Kovács was released in 1956 (Tarján, n.d.b). Another commemoration of the blood-torn 20 th century is the memorial day of the Holocaust. Since 2000, 16 April has been the day of remembrance of the victims of the Hungarian Holocaust. During World War II, on 16 April 1944, the members of the Hungarian law enforcement authorities, in cooperation with the National Socialists, began setting up the first ghettos and assembly prison camps in Hungary, hence the victims of that time are remembered and their memory has been kept alive also via school remembrance days and programmes. Another commemorator of the turbulent times is 4 June 1920, when the Hungarian delegation in the castle of Grand Trianon, Versailles, France, signed an enforced peace treaty after the end of World War I. Hungary lost 75% of its territories, forced to give them to the neighbouring countries (Huszár, 2013, pp. 201-216). Since 2010, Hungarians also commemorate 31 May as a day of the unifying force of the Hungarian language and culture. Children spend these days at school or kindergarten. They are commemorated with objects typical of the events, drawings or newspaper articles posted up on the bulletin boards, by lighting candles in a souvenir corner, or with a short program.
On national holidays, such as 15 March and 23 October, all schoolchildren stay at home with their parents, since these are bank holidays. However, on the eve of the events or one or two days prior to them, they are commemorated at the institutions. Looking into the historical details, as a result of the Vienna Revolution of 13 March 1848, radical Hungarian intellectuals decided on the basic political reforms, which were summarized in 12 points, then read at the 15 March Parliamentary Assembly, and later submitted to the Buda Governing Council. With these events and on that day, a revolution broke out in Hungary, and only a few months later culminated into the War of Independence against the Habsburgs, who were defeated on 13 August 1849, with the help of the Russian Empire. The revolution and the War of Independence lasted for a year and a half.
Only a year later, participants in the March events wanted to officially commemorate them, so they held a spontaneous celebration. In a letter sent to his wife, Lajos Kossuth, one of the leaders of the War of Independence, had described the events of 15 March 1848 as a "slightly disturbing noise", and said he did not really understand what was the reason to celebrate. Nonetheless, he approved the meeting. Silent commemorations were held until 1898, i.e. the 50 th anniversary of the revolution, which was celebrated for the first time by the entire Hungarian political elite, focusing Ágnes Klein, Éva Szederkényi on the so-called April laws confirmed and enacted by Emperor Ferdinand V on 11 April 1848. By 1927 it had already been emphasized that the nation remembered with pride the success of 15 March 1848. After World War II the last commemoration of the glorious 15 March was in 1948, since after the communist takeover in 1947 there were no more state ceremonies. Hence, during the end phase of the dictatorship and communist regime, from the 1970s onwards, young people took the courage to gather spontaneously and unlawfully in Budapest, and by instinct combined the events and heritage of the revolution with protests against the ruling communist system. These gatherings and marches were disbanded by the police and protesters were captivated. From 1987 on, 15 March was commemorated as a national holiday, and after the change of regime it was declared an official national holiday (Huszár, 2016, pp. 43-65).
The two abovementioned most important Hungarian national days remain in the consciousness of all Hungarians due to the strong school traditions of commemorations with various programmes and activities. Walking along the streets on the week of 15 March, one can easily spot little children marching with their handmade "kokárda", a Hungarian symbol representing the revolution, with the red-white-green tricolor of the nation. This feast is already celebrated in kindergarten, being the earliest, long honoured, and probably best cherished memorial day in the lives of young people. The ceremony of 1848 has been expressing a strong Hungarian national feeling, which created an opportunity to protest against the current regime of the socialist system as described above (Huszár, 2016). In kindergarten, celebrations consist of making national symbols, such as the national flag, the "kokárda" or a pick with a tricolor symbol. Since 15 March is usually already a nice spring day, people are marching peacefully in the streets with their children, singing the songs from the revolution, citing poems of its greats poets, and passing by the houses decorated with the national flags. Schoolchildren in a solemnly decorated school building, dressed in festive clothes, take part in a joint program in which they recite poems from a given era or summarize the events of 15 March 1848 in the form of a short play, coloured with songs related to the historical period and events.

Research design
Taking into consideration that the research has been conducted on a smaller target group and its outcomes are not representative, the authors have been taking more samples to involve further age groups. Nonetheless, since the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a digital emergency working mode in education, the question arose if national holidays could also be celebrated by utilizing information technology. Therefore, the empirical basis of this study were the research questions concerning how exactly the celebration takes place, how it conveys the meaning of the historical event to the children, how the children feel about the program, and what means and media channel they would prefer. In a 2002 study Szabó (2016) examined fifth-graders' (11 year olds) knowledge nr 2/2020 (50) Celebrating school remembrance days "rebooted" of historical events related to national holidays and their attitudes towards celebrating them. It was found that most children merely perceived the holidays as free, non-teaching days. Most of them were aware of the revolution of 15 March 1848, yet the uprising of 23 October 1956 was not even mentioned by many. As Benincasa (2006, p. 19) puts it: "Social memory is a necessary ingredient in the celebration and reproduction of family, religious, ethnic, and national groups". Pursuing this logic further, 23 October is a memorial day that has only been celebrated since 1991, therefore it can be assumed that barely ten years later it was not yet so tightly fixed in the social memory, among children neither. The distinction between the terms "revolution" and "war of independence" raises another problem: children saw no difference between them. The majority of fifth-graders described 15 March as a "just and good war". The most important news about the events was taken from literary works, songs, and poems. In Hungary, history is taught linearly and begins in the 5 th grade, so at the end of the 7 th grade it reaches the 19 th century. The above survey was repeated in January 2019. The aim of the study was to present today's school celebrations, their embeddedness in society, especially among children, and to outline the changes that have taken place over the past decades.
Based on the above premises, the following research questions (RQ1-RQ4) arise: (RQ1) Which national holidays do children know? (RQ2) How are they celebrated? (RQ3) What children think about the way and content of the celebration? (RQ4) Have there been any changes in the celebration process, in the children's reactions to the celebration, and in their knowledge of it over the past decade?
In order to obtain answers to these questions, after scrutinizing theoretical observations, which can be said to be interdisciplinary -since not only sociological, but also historical and communication theories, as well as the pedagogical-psychological knowledge are required to describe the topic -the questionnaire type of quantitative method was chosen by the researchers.
The following hypotheses (H1-H4) were formulated in connection with the research questions prior to the development of the questionnaire: (H1) Most children know 15 March 1848 because it has been celebrated since preschool, and is one of the oldest known and celebrated commemorations. (H2) There have been significant changes in the organization of school ceremonies due to the paradigm shift in education over the past decade. (H3) Children do not know the content of the ceremony more thoroughly than before. (H4) Children are attached to the ceremony, but the appearances (dress, symbols, way of organizing the ceremony) do not meet their positive evaluation.
The questionnaires were given to 21 + 21 students in two fifth grade classes. They answered the following questions: 1. Which national holidays do you know? List them.
2. What do we celebrate that day? 3. Choose the most important one for you from the list and write it down. Why did you choose that?

How do you usually celebrate? What do you like about celebration and what don't you like? Why?
During the evaluation of the answers to the first two questions of the questionnaire, we looked at which children gave which holidays in response. The answers pointing to i.e. a Name Day (Hungarian families commemorate the memorial day of the saint whose name one bears the way birthdays are celebrated), Christmas, etc. were not accepted and not counted. The next two questions, after the first two which were of a closed type, were open type ones, and we obtained and evaluated short wordings. Based on the following considerations, the positives and negatives were collected separately and then divided into subgroups depending on whether one wrote about a content or a formal element.

Results
In response to the first question, 100% of children mentioned 15 March as a national holiday, while 20 children, or almost 50%, mentioned 20 August. The latter is a long-lived and appreciated national holiday of all Hungarians which commemorates the formation of the medieval Hungarian state by King St. Stephen (975-1038), the founder of the country. As it is celebrated during the summer holidays, it does not affect schoolchildren, however, it is also a public holiday for adults. The holiday of 20 August is especially interesting for children and young people because of the traditional fireworks on the banks of the Danube in Budapest. As presented above, there are two national holidays in October: on 6 October we commemorate the martyrs of Arad, and two weeks later, on 23 October, the Hungarian revolution for independence of 1956. The two October occasions were mentioned by the children, but many named only one day of October. Five children (11%) were also able to name the day and content of the holidays. The best recognized holiday is that of 15 March, which is known to all children, and 40 children (95%) gave a detailed report of this day. Two children (5%) wrote about 20 August, when they and their families watched the traditional fireworks in the Hungarian capital, which was clearly a fascinating experience for them. Out of 42 children, 40 decided to write about the 15 March ceremony. Based on the children's essays, we first summarize and present in nodes the positive opinions about the celebration, taking into consideration the number of responses (the more people gave the same answer, the higher it will appear in the list).

Positive opinions:
-they don't have to go to school, classes are missed -the day can be spent with family/friends -we preserve traditions, we remember historical events -stories about freedom and patriotism are beautiful -the holiday has been known since childhood, makes part of their lives Negative opinions can be divided into two essential parts: 1. concerning the ceremony and 2. concerning its content. nr 2/2020 (50) Celebrating school remembrance days "rebooted" Negative opinions: 1. Conducting the ceremony: -one has to stand for a long time, it takes too long and it is boring -it is not for children 2. The content of the celebration: -took place too long ago, so it is no longer interesting -too many people have died and been executed -a sad holiday More than 50% of the children emphasize the sad aspect of the festival, with death and sacrifice. Five children (11%) see the fight as a positive event in the sense that the soldiers fought bravely for their homeland. The fifth-graders experience the festivals through their emotions as they do not yet have historically grounded knowledge. They think in sublime categories, often using pictorial words such as 'death' (15 children, 35%), 'fight' (10, 23%) or 'home ' (8, 19%). Surprisingly, almost 18 essays (50%) contain the word 'sad'. From the choice of words we can also see that children have not yet been able to make contact with everyday, historical processes, nor with the fate of an individual. "Emotions without special knowledge are outside the reality of children", writes Szabó (2006), so they can easily stay afloat. Almost 20 years have passed between the two surveys, but changes are barely perceptible. The number of questionnaired children does not allow extensive conclusions to be drawn, but the results can serve as a signal to other classes, schools, and teachers. The formal deviation from the regular school day and an opportunity to wear nice clothes is accepted by most children (6-15%). At home they also wear nice clothes for Christmas and birthdays. Younger children, in particular, like the fifth-graders, do not find it disturbing. Children's opinions are more critical of the program itself, both in terms of design and content. The majority (60%) primarily complain about the design of the program. Curious and open children also turn away from these events when their content does not offer them anything interesting. They feel much more like objects because they are expected to behave quietly, not to disturb the ceremony, but above all to listen while some other children recite and sing poems. The holiday confronts children with fight, death and heroism, and loss. In our age, this is not easy for them to understand and accept. Above all, the events of the War of Independence are crushing and evoke in many children negative feelings. However, what Kossuth, quoted above, referred to as "little noise" is the 15 March revolution. His worthy memory seems to be lost, although it would make easier for children to celebrate this memorial day because of his achievements, triumph, and glory.

Methodological suggestions for experience-based celebrations
Questions are further asked whether adults want children to accept their culture of celebration, whether they need to involve them, and whether that culture needs to be accepted by them their own culture, which can be achieved when students are actively and deeply engaged in remembering historical events, when they get nothing ready but should shape, reconstruct, reproduce, and pass it on to others. Today, we emphasize children's independence in shaping culture according to their age characteristics. An educator, possibly a local museum, a pedagogue or a colleague from a historical association can talk to children about the events, taking into account their interests and knowledge. Older children can be activated in planning and organizing the celebration. In their own families, they can make some research by the method of "oral history", trying to learn how their grandparents lived through this era, collect family resources (photographs, letters, documents, objects, etc.), and create a story based on them. Art, literature, and music can be well combined with each other, so that history can be introduced to children in a more complex and interesting way. History and political science deal primarily with political and legal aspects of reality and pay respect mainly to the dominant group. In return, literature makes it possible to process personal experiences, which can be classified as historical knowledge. It gives children a comprehensive picture at both individual and group levels, and the resulting picture encourages them to think about what knowledge they have gained so far and how they will use it to form a whole. Content that builds on each other and spans subjects is also important for older learners, so age and event can be more plastically depicted and can have a positive impact. The story is more interesting when it is told from the point of view of the contemporaries and describes their fate. In a new perspective, previously marginalized groups may also come into focus, e.g. the minorities or women can be put in the centre of the experimental approach to learning. Moreover, it can be exciting to plan and execute an own project in one's residential area.
Some children are very good at handling digital media devices and can summarize images and audio. Today's primary school students have a constant "online presence" and their interactions with short and compact message exchanges, visual content and emoticons can be used sensibly and creatively in the form of video-based comics, video production, various application aids, flash mobs on social networking or in the genre of vlog or blog. Thanks to the joint effort and shared responsibility, a cooperation can be established between the children, they can get to know each other better, and as a result a community can be formed. The joint selection and preparation of the content also allows the children to review the process, which increases their willingness to cooperate and encourages a more democratic relationship between teachers and students. Children are asked for their opinions, they can express themselves creatively, school memorial days prepared in this way can contribute to democratic education and to the Active Citizenship.
Among various forms of thinking, analytical and critical thinking represent the core values of educating into an autonomous personality. In the preparatory phase of school memorial days, critical and creative thinking can come into play in balance. This framework is also excellent for providing children with detailed information, statistics and figures, etc. concerning the historical events. They can examine, evaluate, interpret, analyze them, draw conclusions and, on the basis of these, support their own opinions and accept the views of others or learn to politely reject them. This extracurricular form of a student -teacher encounter provides an appropriate and less cohesive framework for practicing the above skills, as they will not develop on their own. At this point, moral dimensions also emerge, because if we objectively and analytically compile nr 2/2020 (50) Celebrating school remembrance days "rebooted" material for our classes, prepare it for discussion, the students must confront our own clichés and prejudices in order to understand them and be able to counter them.

Summary and perspectives
Many components of a democratic culture (Council of Europe, 2016) appear in history classes or in the teaching of other subjects, but also in the preparation of remembrance day ceremonies. Among other things, children experience the importance of human life, values such as human dignity, justice, or equality in stories, poems, or the biographies of contemporary witnesses. Positive attitudes such as openness to multilingualism, the minorities, various cultures, religions and worldviews can also be developed. Taking into consideration the premises listed above in this paper, it can be concluded that children are open to new educational pathways and the digitalization of national celebrations is a means by which youngsters can be captured by. If we can truly motivate children to attend an experimental-based ceremony, they will develop such skills as efficiency, self-directed learning, analytical and critical thinking, and collaboration and conflict management through communication. Eventually, they will understand much more about people, the world, than at the beginning of the process.