Dressed in traditional Swedish clothing, Kristina Daniels Dougherty and her daughter, Helena, 7, explained their ancestral customs at the Sweden display in the K.T. Murphy School gym Saturday.
"If I were getting married, this is what I'd wear," said Dougherty, who had on her grandmother's 1931 wedding scarf. "Once you're married you wear a white hat, but today I just wore a ribbon." Helena, a second-grader at the school, wore "an everyday apron" for the occasion.
The occasion was the first ever Multicultural Day at K.T. Murphy. The event attracted scores of visitors, who crowded into the gym to see exhibits from more than a dozen cultures represented in the school's population. Displays were arranged, set up and manned by parents and students.
Authentic attire, food, dolls, books, maps and other items were exhibited for countries including Italy, Israel, Morocco, Guatemala, Mexico, China, India and the United States. At the Greece table, visitors sampled spanakopita, or spinach pie, and kouranbiethes, a dessert cookie. In Jamaica, the food samplings were beef patties and jerk chicken.
The idea came from a parent, Nandita Kotian, after redistricting brought more Indian families to the K.T. Murphy. She and another parent, PTO Co-president Lorraine Masone, co-chaired the event.
"It's amazing," Kotian said of the large turnout. "It's more than what we expected, and a lot of energy."
Masone added, "Everybody's just saying it's so much fun, and very educational."
Fifth-grade student Maria Giagkouse was ecstatic.
"This is the best school ever. I love it," she said about the day's celebration of heritage. "I was really happy when they gave out the fliers. I was looking at the cultures they wanted to celebrate and I saw Greek, and I said, 'I'm Greek!'"
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