For the last five years, Westwood’s Sheehan Elementary School has brought students and their families together to celebrate the many different cultures represented at the school. The always-popular Sheehan Cultural Festival is held outside and features a variety of foods to taste, music to enjoy and games to play.
Sheehan parent Christine McCarthy has been a volunteer since the celebration started. “It’s been a wonderful way to bring together our Sheehan community,” said McCarthy. “In a town like Westwood, people can be surprised sometimes that there is such cultural diversity.”
Pop-up tents make up the event pavilion where families from countries such as Chile, Japan, Sri Lanka and China ran games, art activities and had food from their homeland for people to sample.
Sheehan student Nori Wickremasinghe attended the event with her family and spent time participating in a balancing game popular in Sri Lanka. “I was holding a spoon in my mouth and balancing a lime on it,” said Wickremasinghe. “I did ok! I liked seeing the Sri Lankan booth and being able to play all these games.”
Renuka Haridas is a Sheehan parent from Sri Lanka. She explained the balancing game. “It’s a traditional game in Sri Lanka where you see how well you balance the lime on the spoon in your mouth and see how far you can walk without losing the lime,” said Haridas. “It’s a fun game you see at cultural events, festivals and sports meets.”
Another popular activity was run by Cissy Cheng and her family, who hail from China. They had students practice using chopsticks to eat popcorn. “We represent the Chinese culture, and we value family, education, food and harmony.”
Fifth-grade students kicked off the evening with a drum circle performance. Upon entering the festival, students were given a bingo card to fill out as they visited different stations and completed their activities. Once they filled their card, they returned to the welcome table where they received a prize of a notebook and flag pencil or a globe beach ball.
Families who weren’t able to run an entire table at the festival were invited to take part in a “tea and tasting” table where they could bring a traditional tea, snack or other sweet treat.
“We find that food is one of those wonderful ways that people can showcase where they’re from,” said McCarthy. “Westwood is a very welcoming and open community, and being able to educate and expose families to other cultures is a great way for them to get to know their kids’ classmates and their families.”
The town’s other elementary schools held similar cultural night celebrations earlier this school year.
