Orange Walk schools promote culture
It was a day of food, dance, music and culture last Friday as twenty-two primary schools converged on the village of Douglas to celebrate the cultures of Orange Walk. C.T.V. 3 has provided us with the following report on an exciting day for the children of this northern district.
Parents and educators are constantly worried about how children’s attention and interests are monopolized now a days by television. And culture is a word and concept foreign to students’ vocabularies. The Orange Walk Principals Association for Primary Schools decided to address this situation and organize their second cultural day for twenty-two primary schools in Douglas Village in the Orange Walk District.
The day started with addresses by officials of the Orange Walk’s Principal’s Association including addresses by visiting primary school children from neighboring Chetumal. The rest of the day featured cultural presentations and displays of several cultures with Mestizo culture being predominant among the displays. Featured in the displays were food, implements and even religious ceremonies Mestizos participate in. Chairman of the Orange Walk Principals Association Terencio Chan explains how the association went about organizing the day’s event.
Terencio Chan, Chairman, Orange Walk Principals Assoc.
“This idea came about when we as the objective members and principals as a whole thought that it is due time for us to come back on cultural revival. And we thought that the best way for them at the primary school level to bring about this idea of reviving the culture, and through the students we thought that we would get the community support. Today we have the presence of twenty primary schools participating in various displays such as cultural dances, cultural traditions and customs, food and drinks, artifacts and also clothing.”
The day took on an international flavor with the inclusion of the Adolfo Lopez Mateos Primary School as Señor Antonio Camacho Martinez, Belizean Consul in Chetumal comments.
Antonio Camacho Martinez, Belizean Consul in Chetumal
“I am very grateful for the invitation of the Adolfo Lopez Mateos School of Chetumal to come to Belize and participate in this event for the first time because I like it very much and to know the customs, to know the students of the Orange Walk District.
It’s important for Belize and Mexico to continue with the friendship that they have enjoyed for such a long time.”
After seeing dances of Hindus, Mestizos, Garifuna and Mennonite cultures one can only conclude that culture is alive and well in Orange Walk. We can only congratulate the Orange Walk Principals Association of Primary Schools for putting together an excellent display of culture and hopefully continue enjoying public support. For C.T.V. 3 this is Luis Pook.
Our thanks to C.T.V. 3 in Orange Walk.
