Mosaic of cultures comes together at festival

The kickoff to North Hempstead's Asian-American Festival Saturday afternoon in Port Washington could not have made the town's intent clearer.

A pan-Asian chorus of children, all in traditional Asian dress, belted out the Star Spangled Banner to an audience mostly in traditional American dress, including one Chinese-American boy in a Roslyn Little League uniform.

"This is a very good idea," said Veena Marwha. "It's good for the Asian communities. And English people can also try our food." Her family company is the Deer Park-based national distributor for Haldran Indian food, and they had a tent selling samples.

A few tents west at North Hempstead Beach Park, Jay Yamamoto, a native of Roslyn who lives in Manhattan, narrated demonstrations of the elaborate Japanese tea ceremony.

"Every move in a tea ceremony is a carefully scripted, choreographed move," he said, noting it came first from Buddhist monks before being adopted by samurai warriors.

The soothing music played during the ceremony competed with Chinese music being played at one end of the festival and a Taiko drumming exhibit at the other.

The festival was a similar swirl of smells, with a whiff of incense replaced by another of Indian spices and then the delicate aroma of tea.

North Hempstead Town Clerk Leslie Gross said she was thrilled with the result "It's a whole mosaic," she said. "It's different cultures coming together to celebrate what a beautiful place North Hempstead is. . . . It's just a magnificent, colorful day to celebrate each other's cultures."

Asian cultures are becoming a larger part of the region. In North Hempstead, immigrants from several Asian countries have settled in larger numbers in the past 20 years and may now represent more than 15 percent of the town's population. Flushing, Queens, is home to immigrants from all over Asia. And one of the country's biggest South Asian communities is centered in Hicksville.

Benjamin George of New Hyde Park, an Indian immigrant, said the festival was a good first effort. "Hopefully, next year it will be bigger," he said.

Bruno Bonetti, also of New Hyde Park, said the festival was a way for his wife, Soneya, who was born in India, to stay connected to her culture. And for them and their daughters, ages 4 and 2, it was a day at the beach with good food and plenty to see.