Pitt Nationality Rooms' Holiday Open House To Feature Traditionally Decorated Rooms, A Food and Craft Bazaar, and Ethnic Performances

November 26, 2002

PITTSBURGH––The University of Pittsburgh Nationality Rooms' Holiday Open House will showcase entertainers in native costume, ethnic foods, craft demonstrations, and tours of the 26 Nationality Rooms from noon until 4 p.m.

Dec. 8 in the Cathedral of Learning Commons Room in Oakland. Admission is free.

Each year the rooms are decorated to reflect ethnic holiday customs, including Kwanza, Chinese New Year, Hanukah, India's Diwali (festival of lights), and the Japanese Kadomatsu (a good luck omen for the New Year), as well as the English, German, Polish, Norwegian, and Italian displays. Guides in national dress will describe the many holiday traditions celebrated throughout the world.

This year's ethnic entertainment will feature the Chinese Lion Dance, the Grecian Odyssey Dancers, Scottish sword dancers, the Philippine Tinikling (the bamboo pole dance), an Indonesian gamelan orchestra, Indian dancers, and a Japanese tea ceremony. The performances begin at noon and will run at 15-minute intervals throughout the afternoon.

Visitors will have the opportunity to purchase ethnic foods and crafts from African Heritage, Austrian, Chinese, Czechoslovak, Finnish, German, Greek, Indian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Latin American, Philippine, Polish, Scottish, Syria-Lebanonese, Swiss, Welsh, Women's International Club, and Women's Association representatives at the bazaar.

For more than 40 years, the Nationality Rooms have been decorated by area residents who form the Nationality Rooms Committees.

Tours of the transformed rooms will run from Nov. 25 through Dec. 30. From

Nov. 25 through Dec. 23, rooms will be open Monday through Saturday at 9:30 a.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m., with the last tour starting each day at 2:30 p.m. From Dec. 26 through 30, the rooms will be open at 11 a.m., with the last tour beginning each day at 2:30 p.m. The rooms are closed on Dec. 24, 25, 31, and Jan. 1.

Tour admission is $3 for adults, $2 for senior citizens, and 50 cents for children ages 8 to 18. Children under 8 are admitted free. For more information, call

412-624-6000.

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