Culture vultures in the Royal
The Royal School in Cavan was bustling with life on Friday, September 30, as students and teachers of all nationalities joined together to promote their cultural diversity during their annual Culture Week.
The halls of the school were dotted with stalls celebrating dozens of cultures from around the world. From Poland to Nigeria and everywhere in between, there was a huge amount to see and many delicacies to try on the day.
As the Celt made its way around the different stalls, the children gave us a great insight into the countries they were representing on the day.
Saad Nemon stood proud as he represented Pakistan, the country from which his parents came.
He displayed two beautifully decorated pieces of fabric, explaining their uses, one of which had the sole purpose of being hung on the wall as art; while the people of Pakistan also often wear such fabrics.
On the table stood an elegant chalice-like container. “This is to store water,” explained Saad.
Only a few stalls away, this Celt reporter was transported to Iraq by young student Delan Al-Qassab.
Delan’s stand proved most popular as she was offering free Henna art to the other students.
“You can make nice designs, especially for weddings,” she continued. The Iraqi stand had one of the largest number of cultural items on display on the day including clothing, teapots, incense and so much.
Delan spoke enthusiastically about her home country. However she was clearly taken with her Irish home as well, as she sported a pink Cavan Jersey.
The next stop on the journey was Croatia.
Two very confident young men, Marino Kasolli and Gabrijel Piler, began telling us about the country through an in-depth powerpoint on his computer.
“Croatia is famous for its beaches. Pula is a Croatian town, which is most popular to tourists. It actually has one of the ugliest beaches in Croatia, even though it looks good.
“Some of the better ones are Zadar, Zlatni is one of the beaches and it moves positions because the wind moves the sand and the sea. So it moves from one side to another.”
Speaking about the event, French teacher Eimear McElwaine said: “We are having our annual week of languages and cultures.
“We started maybe 10 years ago. We always celebrated the European Day of Languages on the 26th of September but, because we are quite a culturally diverse school, we turned that into a week-long event to celebrate and showcase all the different cultural backgrounds and nationalities.”
The school boasts students from over 35 different cultures and ethnicities, 20 of whom were represented at the fantastic week-long event.
“There are quite a few students of different nationalities and then some students are from a particular cultural background, and their parents might be from a different country,” explained Ms McElwaine.
She believes that the event is a fantastic opportunity for students and teachers alike to learn about the different cultures in the world and experience their traditions and cuisine.
“It allows students to be able to showcase their own culture, it is good for everybody to see differences and similarities between cultures. It breaks down those different barriers I think.
“It also gives them a boost of confidence, you can see some of the students get very enthusiastic when they’re chatting about their cultures, which is lovely to see.”