Some Lyons Township High School students dressed in cultural clothing Saturday and many worked tables offering foods from their respective countries during the first International Festival at the school.
Other groups performed cultural dances and the French club sang La Marseillaise, the French national anthem.
“Even though we have all of these diverse and amazing clubs, we weren’t doing anything to celebrate them,” said organizer Paula Nardi.
The public event was intended to show the diversity of the community, Nardi said, though most attendees were connected to the school, as staff, students or parents.
French, German, Latin and American sign language clubs attended and the Spanish Honor Society and the East Asian and Greek clubs also participated.
Nardi, the district’s fine arts division chair, said she didn’t know what to expect for the event’s first year, but she’s happy it came together.
“This is the first time, so who knows what’s going to happen,” she said.
Nardi also invited two henna tattoo artists in from Henna Tattoo Chicago to paint henna dye on people’s hands, and she invited the LTHS Steppers Club to perform a short routine.
At the end of the day, Nardi said she hoped students would see how all cultures work together to create the school community.
“We have so many different pieces and it should be celebrated,” she said. “It’s not something that gets talked about that much, so any time we can highlight all the different things these cultures bring to the table it’s a good thing.”
Helen Katsoudas, a mother, was helping her daughter, Georgia, work the Greek Club table, where members handed out pastries.
Katsoudas said she was impressed with all the different cultures on display.
“I love to look at all the different cultures and I know Georgia was excited to teach her culture to everyone else,” she said. “Hopefully it will grow even more and get more people involved and more of the community out to see them. I love how excited the kids are to teach what they learned about their culture.”
The Katsoudas family is a member of a Greek Orthodox church and Georgia has attended Greek school and Greek camp, a large Midwestern camp that brings together Greek kids from several states away.
She said it’s important to understand one’s cultural roots and history and events like the International Festival can bring together other Greek people or people interested in the culture.
Sophia Nelson, another Greek Club member, said Greek culture “plays a big role in our lives.”
The girls have traditional Greek outfits they wear for parades and other culturally important traditions, and while the clothing was at home, put away, Nelson said it wouldn’t be next year.
“Next year we’re going all out,” she said.
Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter.