The first ever HMHS Multicultural Day was held Tuesday, February 27th, celebrating both world language classes as well as affinity clubs. Food, games, crafts, and presentations came together to complete the celebration.
Events were held across different rooms in the school, with larger centers being the B-Gym and the cafeteria, which had fan-favorite snacks including the alcohol-free pina coladas (representing the Spanish Club), Kindergluhwein (German), and challah (Jewish American Cultural Club). “Everything was so delicious,” commented junior Evelyn Bisirri, “It was so cool to try new foods.” Meanwhile, smaller rooms across the school had lower-key activities, like the German loan-Scrabble or in the A-gym, a soccer tournament.
Notable performances in the B-Gym include a ballet demonstration by Gemma Vecchio as a display of French culture, and the singing of a German pop song, “Einmal um die Welt”, sung by German student, Ryan Kopp. Furthermore, the Asian-American Culture Club held a corner in which the exciting “chopstick game” was played, and origami was available. In the center of the room, the Gender-Sexuality Alliance gave out stickers and pins, as well as a loan library for LGBTQ+-related books students at the event could sign out.
The day culminated with a focus on German culture. Throughout the day, students took boxes and decorated them with their own designs, then adding them to a stack across the back of the gym, symbolizing the building and the graffitiing of the Berlin Wall. The school then came together to knock down the colossal cardboard structure, a celebration of German reunification and democracy in general. “We made a trifold explaining history and relevant points about the Berlin Wall to talk about the background, and the entire German program spent weeks collecting cardboard boxes to construct the wall with,” explained Katie Crawford, a German club member who helped coordinate the station, “All in all, it was so much fun to do and it felt super rewarding.”
On the whole, Multicultural Day was a lot of fun combined with a bit of learning, too. A success for the language departments, Multicultural Day is sure to have left an impact on the students involved.
