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Photo courtesy of Westwood Public Schools. At the Sheehan School's annual Cultural Festival, children and their families have the opportunity to experience the art, writing, food, and activities of a variety of different cultures.
6-01-2026 12:26am
Westwood's Sheehan Elementary School Celebrates Annual Cultural Festival
Darlene Cancell
Editor
Thanks to Westwood Public Schools for contributing this article to Westwood Minute.
On May 21, just as it has for the last five years, Westwood’s Sheehan Elementary School brought students and their families together to celebrate the many different cultures represented at the school. The always-popular Sheehan Cultural Festival was held outside and featured a variety of foods to taste, music to enjoy and games to play.
Photo courtesy of Westwood Public Schools. The Sheehan School Cultural Festival featured different stations, some under tents, with cultural information and activities.Sheehan parent Christine McCarthy has been a volunteer since the celebration started. “It’s been a wonderful way to bring together our Sheehan community,” said McCarthy. “In a town like Westwood, people can be surprised sometimes that there is such cultural diversity.”
Pop-up tents created the outdoor event pavilion where families representing countries such as Chile, Japan, Sri Lanka, and China ran games, art activities, and shared food from their homelands for people to sample.
Photo courtesy of Westwood Public Schools. A Sheehan School family shares information about Japan and Japanese culture at Sheehan School's Cultural Festival.Sheehan student Nori Wickremasinghe attended the event with her family and spent time participating in a balancing game popular in Sri Lanka. “I was holding a spoon in my mouth and balancing a lime on it,” said Wickremasinghe. “I did OK! I liked seeing the Sri Lankan booth and being able to play all these games.”
Renuka Haridas is a Sheehan parent from Sri Lanka. She explained the balancing game. “It’s a traditional game in Sri Lanka where you see how well you balance the lime on the spoon in your mouth and see how far you can walk without losing the lime,” said Haridas. “It’s a fun game you see at cultural events, festivals, and sports meets.”
Photo courtesy of Westwood Public Schools. A Sheehan School community member demonstrates how to pick up popcorn with chopsticks.Another popular activity was run by Cissy Cheng and her family, who are from China. They had students practice using chopsticks to eat popcorn. “We represent the Chinese culture, and we value family, education, food and harmony," she said.
Photo courtesy of Westwood Public Schools. Children take part in a drum circle at Sheehan School's Cultural Festival.Fifth-grade students kicked off the evening with a drum circle performance. Upon entering the festival, students were given a bingo card to fill out as they visited different stations and completed their activities. Once they filled their card, they returned to the welcome table, where they received a notebook and flag pencil or a globe beach ball as a prize.
Families who weren’t able to run an entire table at the festival were invited to take part in a “tea and tasting” table, where they could bring a traditional tea, snack or other sweet treat.
Photo courtesy of Westwood Public Schools. Attendees at Sheehan School's Cultural Festival had the opportunity to taste and learn about Puerto Rican food.“We find that food is one of those wonderful ways that people can showcase where they’re from,” said McCarthy. “Westwood is a very welcoming and open community, and being able to educate and expose families to other cultures is a great way for them to get to know their kids’ classmates and their families.”
The town’s other elementary schools held similar cultural night celebrations earlier this school year.
