A Taste of the World on 1st Groton Cultural Day

Christopher Ye ’17, from China, called the first annual Groton Cultural Day “a boiling pot of cultures. I felt I was simultaneously traveling the streets of southern France, the hutongs of rural China, and the markets of Mexico. It was a surreal experience." 

 

Students had set up tables with food and games from Canada, the Caribbean (the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica), China, England, Egypt, Finland, France, Hong Kong, India and Pakistan, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Thailand. The result was a vibrant cornucopia of tastes, smells, and excitement.  

 

Students and faculty roamed from table to table and country to country, tasting Indian samosas, rice and beans from the Caribbean, matcha pudding from Japan, Vietnamese spring rolls, South African fried dough known as amagwinya, French crepes, and British crumpets and candies. They chowed down on nearly one hundred Korea scallion pancakes (made by music teacher Soo Lee Martone) and enjoyed Mexican tacos, guacamole, and flan. But the food was just the beginning. Curious students tried out games they had never seen, such as Chinese shuttlecock and South African upuca, a game with stones.

 

Various cultures introduced themselves through music as well. A traditional dragon dance, celebrating the Chinese New Year, kicked off the festivities. Students cheered as Spanish teachers Fanny Vera de Viacava and Luis Viacava danced the marinera, a folkloric dance from their native Peru. (Sra. Vera de Viacava has won several Peruvian national titles in the dance). The rhythm changed repeatedly as one parent volunteer offered Caribbean salsa lessons and another demonstrated bharat natyam, a dance from India (enlivened with Bollywood tunes). In another nod to the Caribbean, numerous students and faculty lined up for a rousing limbo—bending over backward to pass beneath an ever-lowering stick.