CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay celebrated Children's Day by distributing cakes to school children at Kolathur here on Friday, bringing smiles to the young faces.

Clad in a silk shirt and dhoti, the chief minister arrived at the Madumanagar Chennai Corporation Middle School, Kolathur, and personally distributed a cake and greeting card as well to the children in their classrooms, thus marking the launch of the statewide programme.

This is the first Children's Day event being celebrated by Vijay after he became chief minister in May. Incidentally, this is also the first time the state government is distributing cakes to school children on the occasion.

To mark Children's Day, which is officially observed on November 14, the state government organised special events in government and aided schools today and distributed 45-gram cakes along with greeting cards to students across the state.

At the Kolathur event, the beaming children stood up, one after the other at their respective places in the classrooms, and received the gift from the CM, responding with "thank you sir."