UPDATE: Because of the job action next Wednesday in School District 43, teacher Catherine Yamamoto has postponed this festival to an unknown date.
The universal love for stories will be the year-end theme for the multicultural leadership class at Riverside secondary.
Next Thursday, 20 students at the Port Coquitlam high school will invite the public to hear tales from around the world - and told in different languages.
The storytelling festival by the multicultural class follows last year's wrap-up event on another popular topic that has no barriers: fashion.
"All countries love stories and many share the same story," said teacher Catherine Yamamoto.
For example, most people know about Cinderella through Disney; however, the rags-to-riches narrative was first penned in China in 850 A.D. under the title Yeh-Shen or Ye Xian. In it, there is a fish instead of a fairy godmother. The plot was later modified in 1697 by Charles Perrault in France "and that's the one that we all grew up with," Yamamoto said.
At the fest, students will re-tell Cinderella in English but they will also insert small translations in French, Chinese and Polish, she said.
The celebration will also include a First Nations blessing from the School District 43's Aboriginal education program to acknowledge the territories and speak about their creation myth, a symbolic story of how the world began and how people came to inhabit it.
Next, there will be break-out sessions for children with a Terry Fox librarian; a recount of the Filipino creation myth Si Malakas at Si Maganda; a reading of the Japanese story Little Mouse's Red Vest in Japanese, French, English and Polish; and a reading - in Japanese, Korean, Chinese and English - of the Asian fable The Cowherd and the Weaving Girl.
Admission is with a suggested $5 donation and proceeds will go to support Yamashita elementary in Yamamoto, Japan, which was destroyed by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
This past spring break, the Riverside multicultural students presented $1,000 to the Japanese school and sent a video with a goodwill message that included an appearance by PoCo Mayor Greg Moore.
