Sunday, November 9, 2008

national anthem

I've noticed something- the national anthem of a country always embodies a part of the culture. Take the US national anthem, for example. It speaks of a time in our country while battling Great Brittan for freedom. How, even in one of the darkest times, the flag still stands- both figuratively and literally. As a child, and even as a tween/ teen, I often wondered why that was our national anthem. Why not the song that so proudly proclaims "I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free! And I won't forget the ones who died; who gave their life for me!" Then I realized, The Star- Spangled Banner is our national anthem for two very important reasons:
1. Proud to be an American was not written at the time,

2. The song embodies how we got our freedom- and we should never forget it.


Now, lets talk the Chinese national anthem. I had the pleasure of befriending a Chinese exchange student last year, and she sang the Chinese national anthem, and explained to me that it is encouraging young men to join the army and fight!- Something very important to the Chinese.

The Canadian national anthem? 20+ verses talking about how much they love their country!

I don't know the national anthem of any other countries, but I'm sure they have two things- national pride, and an embodiment of an issue important to the citizens.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

National anthems are really a product of the country themselves like you say. It's interesting that ours was written in an era when nationalism was much stronger than today. The late 1700's was the beginning of that nationalism and an emphasis on self-government. That's when idea of democracy took off.

Knot