Pascack Valley brought back its Multicultural Festival as the Celebration of Cultures this past Thursday, Nov. 2.
The goal of the Celebration of Cultures is to celebrate and highlight the different cultures within PV in addition to any other countries, cultures, or languages found outside of Valley. The Celebration of Cultures Committee decided to change the name of the event from the “Multicultural Festival” because it thought the name “Celebration of Cultures” represented the event better.
“When you think of a festival, you think of one event, one location, and one time. But we wanted to make [the event] bigger, so [Celebration of Cultures] was more appropriate,” President and Founder of the Celebration of Cultures Committee and PV senior Vin Coglianese said.
The Multicultural Festival was a huge success last year with many students visiting and participating in it.
“We found that students and faculty loved the fact that there was a display of a multicultural presence at our school, which we don’t usually celebrate,” PV Interim Supervisor of World Languages, ESL, Music, and Family and Consumer Sciences Argine Safari said. “And we believe that it needs to be celebrated; it’s [something] to be proud of.”
In order to build on the success of the Multicultural Festival, the Celebration of Cultures still kept parts of the layout the same. This format included having students and their teachers set up booths, each displaying a different culture, in the gym during lunch. According to Safari, the committee also wanted to keep the casual mood of the event so “students could drop in, check it out, and then go support their friends.”
However, the Celebration of Cultures Committee felt that it needed to expand the festival this year to include more activities in order to achieve the goal of learning about different cultures.
“We talked to our world language teachers, and we thought that really understanding the culture is a lot more than just knowing about the food,” Safari said.
As a former music teacher, Safari also emphasized the idea that having musical performances would benefit students. Additionally, the performances allowed students to participate in the event without hosting a booth at lunch.
“A lot of students came to me and said ‘I’m a musician, I’m a singer, I’m an actor. I want to be part of it, but I don’t want to host a table,’” Coglianese said. “They were bringing us all these ideas. ‘I could perform in the auditorium, I could perform at lunch.’ We obviously wanted to get them involved, so we expanded.”
This year, the Celebration of Cultures expanded by using the auditorium and the new gym instead of just the old gym, which was the location last year. Coglianese believes that the new layout was better than last year’s.
“I think it interested the rest of the student body because last year it was mostly food-driven. This year, we were able to interest students with [more] things they can relate to,” Coglianese said.
Since the Celebration of Cultures was ongoing throughout the entire school day, students were able to check out the activities and performances during each period. Throughout the day, there was music in the auditorium representing all different countries, including songs like “Tokyo Blues” from Japan, “O Sole Mio” from Italy, and “Je ne Regrette Rien” from France. Songs were showcased by PV students, the PV Chamber Jazz Ensemble, New Milford High School Strolling Strings Ensemble, and award-winning composer, commentator, pianist, and conductor Rob Kapilow.
In the new gym during lunch, students and faculty were also able to take a tour of almost 30 booths that each highlighted a different culture. Similarly to last year, many booths had food, facts about the country, and special garments that were used to represent the country’s culture.
India’s booth displayed traditional clothing, common Indian food like Parle-G Biscuits and Gulab Jamun, and LED light candles set up to recognize Diwali.
During lunch, many students also joined in dancing lessons. Spanish teacher Jimena Ladino led the students in a Latin Dance class while the music was played through speakers.
In order to make the Celebration of Cultures possible at PV, many students had to chip in. According to Coglianese, 180 students participated in running the event; 76 students hosted booths at lunch, and the rest performed in the auditorium. Coglianese credits the event’s success to the students’ dedication and hard work.
“If [the students] didn’t prepare, we wouldn’t have been able to do it,” Coglianese said.
Although the Celebration of Cultures was a day to take part in fun festivities, it was also an opportunity for students and faculty to think about their culture and why it is important to them.
“This [event] is tapping into our district vision of learning more about ourselves, our community, and our cultures,” Safari said.
As the founder of the idea of the Celebration of Cultures, Coglianese hopes that the event will only continue to grow.
“I want it to continue to expand as we get more students to bring in the new students [like] the freshmen,” Coglianese said. “All groups should be included because it’s a great thing.”
