Student parades were held in all towns on Monday to celebrate Oxi Day – the rejection of Mussolini’s ultimatum to Greece on October 28, 1940 – which led to Greece’s victorious war against Italy. Cyprus is probably the only country in the world that has managed to have four official national days, two of which are the national days of another country.

In fact, the student parades are held on the two national days of Greece – March 25, which marked the start of the 1821 uprising against the Ottomans, and October 28. On April 1, which marked the start of the Eoka struggle against British colonial rule, there are some low-key parades. On October 1, which was arbitrarily chosen in the late seventies as ‘Independence Day’ (the actual date the Cyprus Republic came into being was August 16) we have a big military parade.

While it was understandable to have so many national holidays in the first years of the Republic – this was made possible after the Turkish Cypriots withdrew from the government – it now seems excessive. With the Republic now in its 65th year and a full member of the European Union, it does not seem right to have public holidays and school parades on the national days of another country, even if that country is Greece.

March 25 and October 28 could be celebrated in schools so that children are aware of the important days of Hellenism, but holding student parades on these days does not make much sense. It does not make sense to hold student parades for anything, in this day and age – they are an anachronism – when our schools have long ceased being the militaristic institutions they were in the sixties and seventies. We have now embraced liberal education – children at public schools do not even wear uniforms – in which there is no place for military-style parading. It is ironic that the only time children wear a school uniform is when they go on parade.

Parades are usually popular with authoritarian regimes which like to show off the military-style order and discipline of their society and to cultivate national pride, which is used as justification for repressive measures. The Soviet Union held some of the most spectacular military parades, a tradition that continues under the authoritarian Putin regime, while in the occupied area of Cyprus, a part of a main road in Nicosia has a permanent stand on the side for officials to watch the military parades, held to mark the 1974 invasion.

If we must have a military parade once a year, having it to mark Independence Day is correct. The anachronism of student parades, especially to mark national holidays of another state does not stand up to reason. Has anyone ever asked what educational benefit there is for children to take part in a parade? Is it a way of preparing male students for military service perhaps? If the objective of a parade is to cultivate national pride in children – which we doubt it does – should it not be held to mark a Cyprus national day, like April 1?

Ideally, student parades should be abolished as they serve no purpose in a liberal, democratic society. Children learn about their country’s history in the classroom, not by marching on the streets.