Celebrating Cultures at Cougar Ridge Elementary

The Heritage Festival

BY SIMRAN PURI

Cougar Ridge Elementary Parent

Cougar Ridge Elementary Parent Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbor is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions.

- Paulo Coelho

In 2022, we celebrated and experienced several ethnic and country-specific cultures at Cougar Ridge Elementary. In this article, I will share about our Heritage Festival.

I believe it is essential to show the younger generation how people celebrate different holidays in diverse cultures in order to help them develop positive identities and self-esteem. At the Heritage Festival, we had 22 cultural booths representing various countries, where families displayed and demonstrated their heritage and identity while offering entertaining activities and culinary samples.

To help student attendees explore as many cultural booths as possible in an exploratory and fun-based approach, each child received their very own trip passport that had a list of questions for each booth. Upon visiting a booth, children received a stamp after they engaged in the game-based activity and also could search queues at the station display to answer questions in the passport. Towards the end of the visit at the station, they received a bag of treats and goodies.

Activity stations, flag tattoos, and henna tattoos were the busiest stations, and they had long queues!

Together with singing and playing instruments, students also performed traditional dances and songs in a variety of languages.

The Heritage Festival also included a fashion show where children dressed in traditional clothing and styles to celebrate the diversity and uniqueness of different cultures. Incorporating fashion into the cultural event helped to promote cross-cultural understanding and appreciation while also providing an opportunity for attendees to learn about the unique styles and designs of different cultures.

I personally learned about a traditional Polish folk dance costume called “krakovski.” This folk outfit has become the national costume of Poland. The flower wreath was worn by unmarried maidens only. The small one-lined wreath was worn by children and young teens. A Krakovian maiden also wears a long braid tied with a red ribbon. The main element of the maiden’s clothing is a richly decorated bodice worn over a white blouse. The bodice’s decorations vary between different villages around Krakow. The skirts of Krakovian women were very colorful with various floral patterns. Aprons were worn over the skirts; the aprons were made of tulle and laces or white cotton. Krakovian women did not wear much jewelry; the most desirable pieces were red coral necklaces called “korale.”

We also discovered that there are many cultural similarities. For example, the roti or chapati from India and Africa look similar to the tortilla from Mexico. Similarly, we learned how food like dumplings, which were common across many stations, have different names. In Japan, it is called the gyoza. Japanese gyoza is a close relative to Chinese dumplings, with a smaller size and more elongated shape. In Korea, dumplings are known as mandu, in India as momo, and in Poland as pierogi.

As I reflect on these cultural events, it is important to highlight that they helped us beyond just sharing information about cultures. Values such as respect, collaboration, and inclusion got further strengthened for the students. We also reinforced social responsibility via sustainability.

With the overwhelming response received last year, in 2023, we would like to take celebrating cultures within the community to the next level. We look forward to participation from additional countries to make this an even bigger celebration.

*2023 Cougar Ridge Heritage Festival will be on April 28th, 2023 at 6PM.