The Union swelled with families, Girl Scout troops, community members and students Sunday, as they sampled a chunk of MSU’s cultural pie at Global Festival 2000.
The event showcased information and traditions of 24 countries and three regional groups with performances, exhibits and hands-on activities in an attempt to represent MSU’s international population, which is nearly 2,800 students deep.
“This event promotes international awareness,” said communication junior Valentina Halimin, a master of ceremonies for the festival’s performance section. “It’s an opportunity to travel all over the world in a day.”
Chock full of tables, posters, cultural dress and trinkets, international students on the second floor of the Union spread their cultural knowledge.
Crowded around one table, a pack of Girl Scouts awaited the artwork of Amee Patel, an MSU junior and member of Coalition of Indian Undergraduate Students who dyed the girls’ eager hands with henna - a reddish-brown dye obtained from crushed leaves of the henna plant.
“This is mostly used for Indian weddings where a woman’s hands are adorned with jewels and henna,” Patel said.
Suhad Nahawi, a hospitality business freshman and member of the Arab Student Organization, was at the festival with her mother. The organization represents 22 countries.
“People were very inquisitive,” Nahawi said of those attending.
The performance sector of the festival occupied the Union Ballroom, which was full of visitors who often clapped along to various music and dance numbers. Thirteen groups performed to represent a unique aspect of their culture through dance, music and even yo-yo.
Members of MECK, which means “the pulse,” described their music as Korean American folk drumming and “anti-elitist.” It was one of the groups to perform Sunday.
“We’ve made our own American tradition and recreated traditional Korean music for our experience as Korean Americans,” said Tess Kim, an anthropology graduate student and MECK member.
Greek and Cypriot students performed traditional Greek dances in black attire, and pulled other reluctant international students and members of the audience into a dance called Syrtaki.
The Global Festival also offered games and activities for children and families, with origami and hopscotch, candy to win and jewelry to create. Karen and Tim Houchlei, of Mason, brought their children, Samantha, 6, Noah, 4, and Joshua, 3, to Sunday’s festivities.
“It’s important that we let the kids know that there are so many different countries, people that dress differently, talk differently and look differently. But we’re all people,” Tim Houchlei said.
