School Rings in Year of Ram With Celebration of Culture

The dragon undulated past, giving an imperious toss of his head.

Obediently, with eyes open wide, the children dropped what they were doing and fell in behind him in Pied Piper fashion. In a matter of minutes, more than 100 of them trailed the fearsome creature, who led them through a maze of rooms, down concrete walkways and right into the yawning maw of . . . the rumpus room.

None of the youngsters, from kindergarten through second grade, were frightened Friday morning at Fryberger School in Westminster. Instead, they giggled and skipped as they followed the dragon to the site of the school’s annual Tet festivities in celebration of the new Chinese lunar year.

Fryberger has put on such a fete for its students for the past five years in an effort to promote cultural awareness at the school, which is more than 25% Vietnamese. Throughout the past week, the school’s 570 students have been learning about the upcoming holiday and Vietnamese culture in their classes.

“The children really enjoy it,” said teacher Rosalie Straughan, whose first-grade class spent the week painting murals, drawing dragons and baking fortune cookies. “They’re very responsive.”

Technically, Fryberger’s celebration was a week early: The Year of the Ram begins on Friday. But none of the students seemed to mind as they assembled in the rumpus room, which sported painted kites, masks and hats on its walls.

Ten-year-old Ann Trieu performed for her fellow students on the dan bau, a traditional one-string instrument. With her right hand, she delicately plucked out a Vietnamese folk tune. Her left hand deftly manipulated an upright lever to add a soulful quaver to the music.

She then gave a rendition of a tune more familiar to many in her audience: “Clementine.”

Adults in the crowd smiled in recognition. For Ann, who immigrated to the United States a year and a half ago, the song holds a special meaning.

“I heard that song a lot of times on tape” in Vietnam, she said afterward. “When I play it, it makes me happy, because I remember my (music) teacher in Vietnam showing me how to play it.”

She was joined onstage by her 6-year-old sister, Lisa, who sang a folk song in her sweet, tiny voice.

Not surprisingly, it was the program’s martial-arts demonstration that garnered the most enthusiastic response from the youngsters. They sat alert when performers cried “ Yaaaaah! “ They chortled when the combatants flipped one another onto mats, and they clapped when one boy splintered a wooden board with his bare foot.

The fighting onstage was in stark contrast to what actually goes on at the school, teacher Ann Hosier said.

As a result of the Tet festivities held by the school over the years, students “aren’t fighting on the playground--they’re getting together and sharing each other’s cultures,” Hosier said. “We don’t see a division of Vietnamese and so-called white children; it’s a blend.”

School officials also said Friday’s celebration should help mitigate any disappointment some of the children may feel over the cancellation of the annual Little Saigon Tet Festival sponsored by the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce.

“I think (the students) are going to be real happy that we did a good thing at school, since the community celebration has been canceled. It’s good that the kids had the opportunity to be enriched at the school,” Principal Duane Collier said.