The official student news site of Westview High School

The Nexus

The official student news site of Westview High School

The Nexus

The official student news site of Westview High School

The Nexus

Torrey Highlands PizzaRev announces permanent closing
Athena Schmelzer, Staff Writer • March 15, 2024

The PizzaRev in the Torrey Highlands plaza announced that they were permanently closing, Feb. 24. PizzaRev has stayed media quiet during this...

ASB organizes first ever annual Day of the Dead celebration

ASB+organizes+first+ever+annual+Day+of+the+Dead+celebration

For the first time, ASB decided to hold an event celebrating the Day of the Dead in the quad, Nov. 2. This Mexican holiday celebrates the remembrance of people who have passed away by putting on parades and various crafts and dances.

Every year, ASB’s culture commissioners take recommendations from the student body in order to plan events.

This year, observing the Latin American ethnicity of the student body gave them the idea to celebrate the Day of the Dead.

“I noticed that we had a big group of Hispanics and Latinos and I felt that [Day of the Dead] was a good event to introduce culture,” cultural commissioner Yarah Feteih (11) said.

When planning events, the cultural commissioners make sure to portray the celebration in as authentic as possible.

“We didn’t want to represent [Day of the Dead] in any bad lighting and misinform the student body about the holiday so we tried to include main points and symbols,” Feteih said.

ASB displayed the crucial and main figures of Virgin Mary and the marigolds along with wooden skulls.

Students were able unleash their creativity by painting the skulls in various designs that represented the Day of the Dead.

The main activities included skull painting, remembrance of past ancestors, and a mariachi band.

“There were wooden skull templates that we could paint on,” Amber Hauw (12) said. “At the altar people wrote names of loved ones and then put it on that altar.”

This event garnered lots of attention from students and received positive praise and appreciation.

“One of the teacher’s family in Mexico they were glad that we were recognizing their holiday in the U.S.,” cultural commissioner Nava Mavandadi (9) said

As a result of the positive reaction, the cultural commissioners plan to celebrate Day of the Dead every year

“Hopefully it’s an annual thing and we’ll definitely encourage the new commissioners to take this because it is really rewarding,” said Feteih.

Still, the cultural commissioners plan to switch things up occasionally with various activities or by introducing new cultures.

“Even though we’re repeating it, we want to celebrate all these different cultures because we have such a large demographic,” Mavandadi said.

Behind the festivity and music displayed is the main purpose of the ASB cultural events: educating the student body.

“Our goal is to educate [the students] that there is this whole other side and different types of cultures and celebrations that the media doesn’t really show,” Mavandadi said.

The cultural commissioners achieve this by attracting crowds through visuals such as dancing and loud music.

“We want to highlight [the celebrations] and bring it out so everyone can join and be a part of something unifying,” Mavandadi said.

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