To put this Cary event in its global historic context: When Kemal Atatürk turned the old Ottoman Empire into modern day Turkey back in the 1920s, he also decided that the National Independence Holiday should be a “Children’s Day”. (Just one of his revolutionary and unique ideas for modernizing his country.)

To this day, Turkey celebrates its Independence Day basically as a children’s party – and so is the American-Turkish Association of Cary. But this celebration is not just for and by Turkish kids; there are performances by Taiwanese, Lebanese, Chinese, Filipino and other kids, as well as international foods and other fun things to do and see.

Children’s Day by Evgeni Zotov, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND