Hamber Hosts Language Celebration Day
Photo Credit: Kaylen Yip
On Jan. 12, Eric Hamber’s annual Language Day Celebration — a festival with culturally-themed classrooms filled with music and fun activities for all staff and students — was held on the school’s third floor. Occurring during second period, lunch, and third period, the event was enjoyed by many students and teachers.
Language Day has been a proud Hamber tradition for 15 years, but the Modern Languages Department continues to add events and booths to expand the celebration.
“This was the first year that we brought in dancers [...] from Grupo America,” shared Ms. N. Buonassisi (Languages). Grupo America is a Vancouver-based dancing troupe that specializes in dances from all the Americas. Grupo America performed multiple Latin dances in the auditorium during third period, ranging from salsa to bachata to cumbia.
Ms. Buonassisi says the celebration is an exciting way to showcase student work and promote the languages taught at Hamber. “We love it, it's a really fun day [...] it creates a big fun vibe in the school and a really nice atmosphere of celebration.”
As well, an enormous variety of cultural foods were prepared for the event. French classes gave out cheese, popcorn, baguettes, croissants, and hot chocolate, and other language classes had treats ranging from mochi to Takis.
To “buy” the food, students had to pay a certain amount of tickets, which could be earned by playing games in the different language rooms. Activities offered included photo booths, small table hockey, French trivia, and classic Quebec carnival games. Face painting and caricatures were new successful additions to the festival, which French Club and Art Club collaborated on to bring to fruition.
Ms. S. Leechik (Languages) still remembers when the event was hosted in the old Eric Hamber building, and all the effort the department put into bringing the celebration back after COVID-19 restrictions ended.
“In the old building, we used to have [the language celebration] annually,” she told The Nest. “The first year in the new building, we [decided] we were [also] going to celebrate”
Ms. Leechik continues to make favourite memories each year; this year, she enjoyed “seeing all the students come out, including my own students, even from my English classes, coming to support. Regardless of what our interests are, [...] our school comes together, and we support each other at all the different events, and that's my favourite part.”