Celebrating Our Family Cultures

April Lee (Mehana, EW) easily shares her family celebrations with NSW and thoughtfully explains our social responsibility team’s point of view: “I love the idea of thoughtfully honoring the cultural traditions of our community through  personally meaningful celebrations, big and small, and seeing how they unfold with the children’s input and teachers’ support. As we’ve discussed, “culture” is something that is not only descriptive of ethnic, geographical, and religious groups, but can be something specific to each unique family. For instance, our family’s “culture” includes Indian, Korean, and Chinese ethnic heritages, the Sikh religion and Buddhist philosophies, as well as the cultures of the places we’ve lived, including Hawaii, New York, and Los Angeles.  I appreciate the impact of something that can breathe more than what I have seen in the past with “multicultural days” or ethnic “themes” which often touch upon aesthetics of cultures but often fail to generate more meaningful learning let alone celebrate the richness of diversity in our world. They also often omit the fact that every culture is a culture to be explored and celebrated, not just marginalized ones, which I see as problematic for several reasons including the underscoring of “otherness”.”

Mehana brought a sculpture of Ganesha in recognition of Vinayaka Chaturthi or Vinayaka Chavithi. It is a Hindu festival celebrating the birth of Ganesha. It falls in the months of August or September of the Gregorian calendar. Ganesha was shared at morning circle in the East Wing.

The petals surrounding Ganesha were blessed during a yajna with a Brahmin priest from India called Vedamurti Shri Vivekbhau. He has been practicing these mantras for roughly 9 hours/day since he was 7 years old, and is now 65! 

The yajna is a devotional ceremony which involves a ceremonial fire and many offerings of flowers, fruit, and sweets. This particular yajna was to the Lord Ganesh in Honor of Ganesh Chaturthi, which is the name of the celebration of his birthday. 

Basically, Ganesh is a Hindu god associated with new beginnings, a remover of obstacles, and the keeper of bliss. He is a happy and benevolent god who loves sweets and joy. 

The blessings on the flowers absorb all the blessings from the priest. While we are not Hindus ourselves, Chetan and I both experienced deeply beautiful moments during the ceremonies. 

Afterward, the children set Ganesha up in the Mini Studio with the fresh petals all around. Thank you for sharing your celebrations as part of our school culture!