Multicultural celebrations light up King Elementary

King Elementary students, staff and families learned about multicultural celebrations on Oct. 18.
King Elementary students, staff and families learned about multicultural celebrations on Oct. 18.

Oct. 23, 2013

By Tara Cavanaugh

Five hundred lanterns lit up King Elementary on Friday night.

Kids and their families held the lanterns to celebrate a Vietnamese mid-autumn holiday. Most of those kids donned Halloween costumes. And most of the kids had sticky faces after indulging in Korean moon pies.

The Oct. 18 Harvest Moon celebration at King was a cultural mash-up of sorts, showing kids how the change in season prompts community gatherings over the world.

Booths provided activities to teach students about the Indian celebration of Diwali, the Korean celebration of Chuseok, the Jewish celebration of Sukkot, the Latin American celebration of Dia de los Muertos, and more.

The Harvest Moon celebration provided dozens of hands-on activities, such as origami making.
The Harvest Moon celebration provided dozens of hands-on activities, such as origami making.

The celebration was prompted by harvest time in King’s Learning Garden, said Linh Song, a parent who organized the event. “We wanted the kids to get a sense of the commonalities between the celebrations and harvest,” she said as popular American Halloween-themed songs played in the background.

The event provided learning opportunities for parents, too. “We have a lot of kids whose parents are immigrants, so they don’t know the connection of ‘Thriller’ or ‘Ghostbusters’ to American Halloween. So this is a great cultural mashup!”

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