Pitt Dec. 7 Nationality Rooms' Holiday Open House To Feature Traditionally Decorated Rooms, A Food and Craft Bazaar, and Ethnic Performances

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. 7 in the Cathedral of Learning Commons Room, 4200 Fifth Ave., 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 displays in the English, German, Polish, Norwegian, and Italian rooms. Guides in national dress will describe the many holiday traditions celebrated throughout the world.

This year's ethnic entertainment will feature an African Heritage children's ensemble, the Chinese Lion Dance, the Philippine Tinikling (the bamboo pole dance), a Japanese choral group, Yugoslav performers, and Indian, Italian, and Scandinavian dancers. 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 of African Heritage, Austrian, Chinese, Czechoslovak, English, Finnish, German, Greek, Indian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Latin American, Philippine, Polish, Romanian, Scottish, Syria-Lebanese, Swiss, Welsh origin, as well as from the Women's International Club and Quo Vadis.

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. 24 through Jan. 16. From Nov. 24 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 Jan. 16, 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.

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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