St Aloysius Primary reignites nat’l pride in Ja Day celebrations
FOR THE staff at the St Aloysius Primary School in Kingston, the Jamaica Day activities are more than just a commemoration, but provide a significant opportunity to foster patriotism and cultural retention for students.
“We find out that our culture is really lost; it’s eroding in a sense,” cultural agent and co-coordinator of the Jamaica Day celebrations, Jermaine Gordon, told The Gleaner on Friday as the celebrations were under way.
To combat this cultural erasure, Gordon said the school puts a lot of effort into ensuring its celebrations are not only fun, but have educational value. And he is pleased with the enthusiasm displayed by students and parents alike, who showed up to school decked out in the Jamaican colours of black, green and gold.
The school’s devotional activities were held jointly with neighbouring St Joseph’s Infant. And after choir performances from their peers, students enjoyed grooving, waving Jamaican flags, and singing aloud to reggae legend Bob Marley’s hit One Love, which blasted through speakers on the compound.
“Jamaica Day for us is not just entertainment and celebration, it’s also educational because if you walk around the different booths and different blocks, you will see the boards that are decorated with different themes and Jamaican colours, and some people use bandana to decorate,” Gordon said.
Jamaica Day is observed on the last Friday of February each year. This year’s celebration is being observed under the theme ‘Celebrating Jamaica: Authentic and Unique … A Fi Wi TREND A Dweet’.
Gordon explained that each classroom sets up booths to highlight different aspects of Jamaican culture, including the performing arts, cuisine, sports, visual arts, literacy and arts, and innovations.
Additionally, he noted that there was a farmers’market with various Jamaican produce on sale. The celebrations, he said, were open to parents and the wider community who want to engage.
JAMAICAN FEAST
“It’s a big feast celebration annually. Everybody can always come to St Aloysius Primary and enjoy a Jamaican feast,” he said. “We’re all Jamaicans – one Jamaica.”
Danielle Johnson Francis, whose child is in grade five, told The Gleaner that she looks forward to celebrating Jamaica Day with the school each year, noting its importance in ingraining Jamaican culture in the younger generation.
“These things, they can be forgotten, but every year, especially this Black History Month, these are a part of the things that will embed in the culture the Jamaican fibre of being a Jamaican and what it means to be patriotic and to love your country and know that I am a Jamaican, and not just because I’m born in Jamaica, but because of the rich culture that we have,” she said.
“There are so many different things that can divert you from being Jamaican – the influence of other countries such as America and … all the things that are on the technological devices, so we just have to know seh a it dis! A dis a wi roots,” she continued.
Sporting a yellow top with an embroidered Jamaican flag, Barbara Samson felt proud as she enjoyed the celebrations.
The elderly woman told The Gleaner that her three sons attended the institution, and she was there supporting her grandson, who is in grade five.
“This is perfect!” she said. “The school is perfect for putting on this celebration. They’re doing a good job at it. The kids nowadays need to know the value of the country, the value of one another, and to love one another, and this helps with that,” she said.
Another parent, Lozon Aldred, whose child is in grade six, congratulated the school on a job well done.
“They go all out and that’s what I can appreciate about St Aloysius. They really enforce the culture and how important it is to the children and to nation-building,” she said.