Kristen Sawl walked to the Cathedral of Learning yesterday morning and put on two petticoats, a… Kristen Sawl walked to the Cathedral of Learning yesterday morning and put on two petticoats, a maroon skirt, an apron, a jacket and two hats.
Sawl, a Pitt junior, was one of more than two dozen Quo Vadis members who gave presentations on holiday traditions during the annual Nationality Rooms Holiday Open House, which ran from noon to 4 p.m. in the Cathedral of Learning.
Sawl was stationed in the Welsh room, a white-walled room that’s mostly bare except for one bookcase tucked into a corner, a chalkboard, a few pews and a pulpit. She told the people who walked in and out of her room — about 2,000 to 3,000 people attended the event, and they entered and exited the rooms as they pleased ¬— about how the people in Wales traditionally attend church services between 3 and 6 a.m. There’s not much natural light at that time, she said, so the people would bring candles with them to light the room. As attendance grew, the ministers added wreaths and other decorations to balance the extra candles.
“It was a magnificent environment to be in to hear the word of God,” Sawl said. “Not only that, it was symbolic, because Christmas is to welcome Christ, the light of the world.”
A floor down from Sawl, Pitt alumna Megan Klingensmith offered descriptions of the Chinese Room. The Chinese holiday season, she said, places more emphasis on the New Year than on any other holiday. The Chinese use a lunar calendar and will celebrate the beginning of the Year of the Tiger on Feb. 27, 2010.
The Chinese, Klingensmith said, will hold a parade and have fireworks before sitting down with their families.
“It’s sort of like Christmas and the Fourth of July all rolled into one,” she said.
Klingensmith, who graduated from Pitt in April, said she’s given Nationality Room tours since 2005.
Every member of Quo Vadis takes an examination on the basic information of each of the Nationality Rooms to earn clearance to give the tours. To learn the information about each nation’s holiday traditions, the members read packets on their respective country’s customs and sometimes talk to the members of the committees who organize them, Klingensmith and Sawl said.
Maxine Bruhns, director of the Nationality Rooms, said she goes to great lengths to ensure the accuracy of the rooms. She once yelled at the organizers for putting an image of Mickey Mouse in a room. She said she chastised the organizers of another room for putting up a Christmas tree when the people of the country they represented didn’t traditionally use Christmas trees.
“I think that that’s really what our purpose is — to keep these things correct, even if it’s very simple,” she said.
To further capture the customs of each country, Bruhns also programs entertainers. Yesterday’s event included a traditional dance performance from the Greek Odyssey Dancers. Taiko drummers from the Bethany College Japan Outreach and students from the Pittsburgh Chinese School and the Peters Township Chinese School also performed.
Bruhns said she enjoys watching the groups because many of them both appeal to and incorporate several generations into their performances. Yesterday’s crowd included small children, college students and grandparents, among others.
The fact that the open house appeals to several generations at once “reinforces the fact that Pittsburgh is a multi-ethnic city, and [these people] are keeping their culture alive,” she said. “I feel that’s our mission in the Nationality Rooms — to keep alive the music and the singing and the dancing and all that. That could easily die out.”