Parent Walt Lake has been a regular attendee at East Midvale Elementary’s Living Traditions event for years, learning about countries from the expertise of his children. This year, his son Maddox took the lead, guiding him through the booths showcasing different European countries.

“We just came from Albania,” the third-grade son. “The country has lots of castles and they turned their World War II bunkers into
art pieces.”

This marks the 10th year families have gathered to explore different parts of the world. The event blends traditional culture with geography, music, science, history, and more, as families complete a passport booklet, highlighting the key features of each country.

This year’s journey included discovering the names of French mountains, identifying the three Greek gods who were brothers, learning about the two-headed animal on the Albanian flag, understanding what makes the sand on Iceland’s beaches black, naming the Irish stone kissed for the “gift of the gab” and even finding out how much chocolate a Swiss resident consumes annually.

Several attendees also enjoyed a concert by the Wasatch Alphorns, where they learned the 12-foot-long instruments were originally used to call cows in from pasture for milking.

“Living Traditions for me is the perfect school family engagement event,” said Shelley McCall, East Midvale community school facilitator. “It weaves learning into an event that is fun, entertaining and filling with food for the whole family. Students are proud to show their parents the projects they made and point out the parts of the country displays that they contributed to.”

McCall said each grade level comes up with the country to study. This year, they added food samples from the country for attendees to taste as well.

“They really embrace the task of creating engaging displays in the halls that teach us all about a country and a region,” she said, adding several area businesses — Sprouts Market in Midvale, Paris Baguette in Midvale and Beirut Café in Murray — donated the food items.

Fourth-grader Milo Parry was eager to share the Greece display his grade had worked on with his parents, David and Kayla.

“They started almost everything in the world, including the Olympics,” he said.

His first-grade sister, Amelia, and her classmates studied Ireland.

“Ireland is an island and my favorite country so far,” she said. “I’d like to go there sometime.”

For a couple of weeks, first graders delved into Irish national symbols, typical foods, famous landmarks, and folklore, including leprechauns and shamrocks.

“It’s important to learn about different cultures of the countries because our school is so diverse,” said first-grade teacher Delmy Kislowski.

First-grade teacher Lesina Green said her students enjoyed listening to traditional Irish music.

“We talked about how the Celtic harp makes them feel and how beautiful it was,” she said. “We watched a couple Irish dance videos. I’d love to expand on this the rest of the year so they can gain new perspectives and discover cultures outside of their own.” λ