Student Voice: The Importance of Celebrating Global Traditions
Imagine a situation where you are asked to interact with someone from a different country other than your own. Would you be comfortable or awkward around them? While most people reading this would probably say they feel comfortable speaking with foreigners, before I joined Dulwich, whenever I saw someone very different to me I hesitated in talking to them. Of course, I was very curious and eager to meet them, but my awkwardness around them always made it difficult for me to connect and get to know them. This is because before joining the College I didn’t have exposure to a wide variety of different cultures. Everything was so new to me, that I didn’t know how to find common ground with foreigners. International schools, multinational companies, or any place that has a range of people from different backgrounds tend to be more diverse, and people from there tend to be more open-minded to differences in cultures and traditions, languages, festivals, and everything else that makes a country different from one another. It is important that students learn to be comfortable with differences from a young age, and that is why I think it is important for us to celebrate global traditions in our school.
Being open-minded to all of the fantastic diversity the world has to offer is one of the key aspects of being a Global Citizen. Being open-minded means being comfortable and competent with communication with people from around the world. As Ms. Zhou, Head of Mandarin, recently stated in an article,
We know that we cannot truly ‘Live Worldwise’ unless we understand and appreciate the cultures, languages and traditions of the world. This aligns with the IB learner profiles, which aim to develop internationally minded students who “…Understand and appreciate their own cultures and personal histories, and are open to the perspectives, values and traditions of other individuals and communities. They are accustomed to seeking and evaluating a range of points of view and are willing to grow from the experience.”
— What Is An IB Education?
I believe one crucial aim of being in an international school should be to learn about different cultures and traditions, interact with different people, learn about them and celebrate diversity. At Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi, we celebrate diversity in a lot of ways. One key way is that we have whole College assemblies on the dates of different national festivals, and we celebrate them with student performances, sometimes food, during lessons and, most importantly, as a school community. For example, as we are a school that follows the British curriculum but is in China, celebrating key Chinese and British festivals is key. However, as we try our best to be diverse, we celebrate many other festivals such as Halloween (DUCKS Fun Run), Diwali, Eid, Remembrance Day, Canadian Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chinese New Year, and Mid-Autumn Festival to name a few.
During my interview for Head Student, I was asked “If there was something you could change, what would it be and why?”. I thought through the question and told the panel that I think we should try and aim to be more diverse. Students in Senior School learn Spanish as a compulsory language up to Year 9. In my opinion, I thought it would be a good idea to further implement some culture into our community that will help us make our Spanish language learning more real. One of the most celebrated festivals in Hispanic countries is a festival called ‘Día de los Muertos’ that is translated to ‘The Day of the Dead’.
Día de los Muertos is a festival that originated in Mexico, where people remember their ancestors. They place offerings on their graves and celebrate a range of traditions centered around remembering their loved ones. It is a festival full of singing and dancing and celebrating the dead rather than mourning them. They celebrate by decorating the altars, and by placing ‘Ofrendas’ on their graves. Decorations called ‘Calaveras’ are also made in the shape of a skull with a smiling face to depict mocking death. During the Day of the Dead celebration season, you can see marigolds everywhere. Marigolds are thought to be flowers that guide the dead from their world to the living. They symbolize the beauty, and delicateness of the living.
As a result of my suggested, this is the first year we have added Día de los Muertos to our calendar of national celebrations. We have enjoyed a day of dances and celebrations to pay homage to this important Mexican tradition.
In conclusion, being open-minded and celebrating diversity is important because it helps us understand the world much better. In addition, nowadays, most universities want their students to be able to engage with a range of people. Studying at an international school such as Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi helps us be prepared for such a future, because here we learn to ‘Live Worldwise’ and ‘Graduate Worldwise’ while also following the school values of “Aim High, Work Hard, Be Kind and Respectful, and Make a Difference”.
Next week, we have Remembrance Day coming up. This is an example of an important British tradition that we mark each year. I look forward to speaking at the Remembrance Day assembly, and paying tribute to those who gave up their lives fighting for their countries.
