Stuyvesant Holds First Japan Day Festival

The fifth floor buzzed with 500 students lining up to don sumo suits, learn the art of Bon dancing, and decorate the walls with their wishes for Tanabata, the Japanese Star Festival, in celebration of Stuyvesant’s First Annual Japan Day on Friday, May 5. The event was organized by Japanese teacher Chie Helinski and an organizational cabinet of junior students to showcase various aspects of this culture.

Assistant Principal of the World Languages Dr. Ernest Oliveri has assisted teachers in organizing festivities, such as the Día de los Muertos Celebration and the Chinese New Year Festival throughout this year.

The event was conceived after these celebrations, when Ms. Helinski began brainstorming a Japanese cultural event. Much of the inspiration for the event stemmed from Japandemonium, an annual celebration of Japanese culture already held in the Japanese classes. Kodomo No hi, or Children’s Day, was suggested as the date to schedule the event.

“We needed to prepare the decorations, make sure we had enough food, and also organize how the extra credit was going to work,” junior and President of the Cabinet Liz Lee said.

The event offered various activities for attendees. “We wanted to make it more hands-on so we formed a committee of students which focused some events on craft. We added [a thousand] origami cranes around the poster of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, [as] that’s culturally done. [In Japan,] for New Year’s, people go to shrines. They get fortune readings. So, we organized fortune readings for students. July 7 is the Star Festival. It's a big international holiday and celebration. [The Japanese] make [Tanabata] wishes on paper. So we did just that,” Helinski said.

The event was positively received by many students. “I entered the raffle right away. The food and sweets were amazing. I really enjoyed watching the festivities and participating in some of the events that I only saw in movies, like writing down my wishes. It was even better because lots of my friends went, though extra credit really helped convince them to go,” sophomore Anne Zhang said.

The festival attracted a large volume of people, causing some issues for organizers. “Although I had fun, after 10th period, the hallways were really crowded and it was a little overwhelming. At one point I just wanted to leave because there were so many people, ” Zhang said.

Organizers addressed these concerns of overcrowding and difficulties in planning. “We ran out of food really fast, and some decorations were being teared off, not intentionally of course, as people were pushed against walls with the lack of space,” sophomore Dillan Blake said.

The Japanese department has already begun looking to next year’s celebration to make further improvements to the festival. “It [will] definitely [be] in the cafeteria next year with probably a megaphone to talk to the whole crowd,” Helinski said.