So on Saturday the 22nd, I put on my school uniform and went to the school with my brothers and mom. The ceremony was held in the church that is part of the school building and included in the ceremony was a short sermon, a blessing, and a lot of Catholic prayers in Spanish. Then they called up the new students by grade. Aim and I were the only new students there who were in tercero medio. We went up, recieved a little paper triangle saying something like "welcome new students 2014". We had to pick up a handful of seeds and scatter them in the pan of dirt, which I believe was supposed to be symbolic, but really just confused me because I had no idea what I was supposed to do. It was probably explained at some prior point but I missed that part between all the prayers and sermon and Bible readings. Then they pinned a little Don Bosco cross pin on our school sweatshirts and we sat back down. (Don Bosco was the founder of the chain of Catholic schools my school is a part of. In every class room, there is a cross and a plaque stating the school's mission and talking about Don Bosco.) They took pictures of everyone together and released us.
One the school website, they posted several pictures of the ceremony and a little blurb about the ceremony: "Con una emotiva y acogedora ceremonia realizada el dia Viernes 21 y Sabado 22 del presente Marzo en el Parroquia Don Bosco de nuestro Liceo, se dio la bienvenida a esta Comunidad Educativo Pastoral, a los alumnos nuevos y sus familias. Las ceremonias fueron presidadas por el Padre Bernardo Garcia, Coordinador del Area Pastoral y el Padre Jorge Lopez, Director de nuestro Liceo. Entre los significativos momentos que se vivieron, el Padre Bernardo Garcia invito a los padres y apoderados a 'sembrar la emilla en tierra fertil' -haciendo alusion a sus hijos- y junto al Padre Director y la Coordinadora Academica Sra Rosalia Soto e integrantes del Area Pastoral, hicieron entrega a cada alumno y alumna de una piocha distintiva con la imagen de Don Bosco. El acto fue amenizado por un grupo de alumnos de la Orquesto Sinfonica Integral a cargo de su director Sr Daniel Rebolledo."
For those of you who don't know Spanish, that essentially translates to: "With a ceremony on Friday the 21st and Saturday the 22 of March in the Don Bosco parish of our school, we welcomed to this Pastoral Educative Community (sounds weird in English) the new students and their families. Presiding over the ceremony were the Father Bernardo Garcia, coordinator of the pastoral area, and the Father Jorge Lopez, director of our school. Father Bernardo Garcia invited the parents and students to 'plant the seed in the fertiel earth' and together with the Father Director and the academic coordinator, Mrs. Rosalia Soto, welcomed each student to the image of Don Bosco. The ceremony was accompanied by music played by a group of students from the orchestra."
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