The 10th Annual Family Village Festival, a free community
event for all ages, was held on Saturday, October 11, 2008 from
11:00 – 5:00 pm in Downtown Riverside in White Park.
NRI
Sikh community Celebrate Village Festival at Riverside, California
Unity Among Diversity
Riverside. California, Oct. 15, 2008
Jaswinder Dhillon
This multicultural festival offers Special Villages, each celebrating
a different culture, and will offer guests the unique opportunity
to explore and learn about different cultures and their traditions
through cultural cuisine, children’s activities, storytelling,
art and, music and dance performances throughout the day.
Each year the Multicultural Council of the Riverside Museum
Associates organizes the Festival in the first weeks of October.
The event is hosted by the council and the Riverside Metropolitan
Museum.
The dual purpose of the gathering is education and celebration
of cultural diversity, so as to bring people closer to each other
and greater respect for different folks of the globe. The main
focus on the cultures living in the city of Riverside. Many school
children attending the event think, that they are a part of greater
group. This helps them to find their ethnic roots and at the same
time appreciate other cultural diversities. Throughout the park,
there were villages of African-American, Burma, Barbados, Japan,
Central America, China, Ghana, Guyana, Jamaica, Oaxaca Mexico,
Native America, Puerto Rico, Punjab-India, Samoa and Scandinavia.
Besides the villages, one could have a taste of Cultural samples
at the following, Samoa, Barbados, Puerto Rico, African-American,
Scandinavia, Central America and of course the tasty food of Punjab-India,
presented every year by the Sikh Community of Riverside Sikh Gurdwara.
Sikh community is serving the free food and bottled water and
even soft drinks to thousands of visitors. Sikh Temple is one
of the main sponsors of the festival. Akwinder Singh contributed
soft drinks, Rashpal Singh Dhindsa- The bottled water and so the
Wraich Brothers. The food was prepared under the supervision of
Head Priest, Bhai Jaswant Singh of the Sikh Temple. Tarlok Singh
Sandhu is one of the crew members of the Management Committee
of the Sikh Gurdwara are actively supporting and sponsoring this
festival for the past five years. Jasminder Singh Dhillon is a
care taker of the food service since five years,
The Honorable Mayor, Ronald Loveridge was a special guest if
the festival along with the outgoing Directors of Museum, viz.,
Vince Moses & Richard Esparaza, and the present Director Ennette
Morton, and the Master of Ceremonies was Reverend Ralph Rivers.
Of the dozen stage performance, Gatka-A-Sikh, the Martial Arts
of the Sikhs presented by the Akal Purkh Ki Fauj under the command
of Hargobind Singh of Los Angeles was a great point of attraction
and applause, All the folks remained at the venue from 11 A.M.
to 4:30 P.M. enjoying the great taste of the festival.
Sources: The Press-Enterprise
