September the 1st is the first day of school throughout Russia. On this day school children come back to school after the summer break and bring flowers to their teachers.

Education has been always of a big priority for Russians, so this holiday is really loved by kids: they are back to school and back to their friends – normally children stay in the same group of classmates throughout their whole school life.

Day of knowledge is especially emotional for the first graders and their parents. They all come to school fancy dressed with big bouquets of flowers. All students gather in the schoolyard, divided class by class for the solemn meeting, called “First Bell”. After welcoming speeches comes the ritual of ringing the first bell. A senior boy parades in front of the lineup students with the tiny girl (first grader), sitting on his shoulder. The girl rings the bell and the crowd cheers.

There is no actual lessons but rather textbook seeing on that day.