Auten Road’s annual International Festival
helps students learn about other cultures
By:Sally Goldenberg
Adorned in a traditional blue sari, Aparna Surampubi joined her sixth-grade son, Rohitin, to educate the community about Indian customs and traditions Friday night at the annual international festival in the Auten Road Intermediate School.
While families passed by the table to hear Indian music and sample traditional foods, which were accompanied by a warning sign indicating some snacks may be too spicy for unfamiliar tongues, some students received henna paintings on their hands.
The Indian custom, typically carried out during weddings, was scaled down for the students, who walked away with designs crafted from face paints instead of the traditional dyes, Ms. Surampubi said.
The annual festival, which the school’s Home and School Association sponsored, represented 32 countries through displays crafted by students and parents.
"I think it’s the most important time for children to understand that there are differences in cultures," said Vice Principal Mary Ann Mullady.
Although the festival was scheduled before the United States war in Iraq began, the hostile international climate has demanded a greater need for students to appreciate foreign backgrounds, Ms. Mullady said.
For Jackie Porter, who represented Costa Rica, the war has been an incentive to give the display her best effort cooking rice and beans all week long.
The Brooklyn native, who has no ethnic ties to the country she represented Friday night, said her sixth-grade daughter, Brittany, has been consumed with news coverage of the war and diverted her attention to focus on researching Costa Rican dishes and customs.
"It absolutely opened her eyes to another culture," Ms. Porter said.
And the juxtaposition of fighting a war in Iraq while celebrating multiculturalism in the school gave way to a more poignant event, she added.
"I think this is a great time," she said. "So they don’t form prejudices because of what’s going on in Iraq. That they realize that the world is much bigger than New Jersey."
To that end, the evening gave Rohitin a chance to wear authentic Indian clothes and teach his classmates about his culture in a comfortable setting, Ms. Surampubi said.
With only three Indian classmates, Rohitin rarely has the chance to express his culture in school, she added.
"He took a lot of pride in it," she said of the display. Though she had to urge him to wear his native garb, she said he obliged because he understood the importance of expressing one’s culture.
According to a survey taken at the outset of the school year, Auten Road enrolls 976 whites, 51 blacks, 50 Hispanics and 97 Asians/Pacific Islanders.
"There are many things that we take for granted. We assume things about cultures," she said, adding that the multicultural celebration granted people a chance to "see the best in each country."
After trekking around the room and collecting stamps from different countries for his makeshift passport, Rohitin said he learned that Scots enjoy golf and authentic Chinese food does not resemble Chinese take-out.
While some students sampled a variety of foreign foods from Israeli humus to English scones across the hall the school’s cultural dance club performed four dances from Germany, the U.S. and Italy.
"You get a different taste of a different culture," said fifth-grader Janel Gluch, who performed the Sicilian tarantella and several other dances with her classmates.
Nancy Korenczuk, who chaired the event, said about 90 percent of participants volunteered to represent countries in their family trees.
But Janet Pescinski and Linda Ferry said they enjoyed compiling artifacts from Turkey, though neither is Turkish.
Ms. Ferry covered the kaleidoscopic display with a kilim rug sewn with a pattern representing Noah’s ark. The rug, which her husband brought back from his business trip to Turkey, was the base for traditional Turkish snacks, such as figs and dried apricots and a Turkish delight made of dates, honey, roses and jasmine.
Ms. Pescinski, who studied in Turkey, brought artifacts from her days overseas, such as a tea and coffee pot, to the table Friday night.
Much of the ladies’ display centered around the Turkish tradition of warding off the evil eye. Literature regarding the concept, accompanied by an amulet, alerted students to the Turkish folklore.
"It never hurts to expose children to other cultures," Ms. Pescinski said. Students who later encounter these cultures will recall the displays, she added. "They notice things and make a connection."

