Stake Cultural Night

Saturday night the Canberra Stake held what I hope will be its first-annual Cultural Night, and it was great! One of the things I’ve always loved about our stake is its cultural diversity—in my ward alone we have members whose first languages include English, Portuguese, Russian, Samoan, Spanish, Tagalog, and Tongan—and this event was a perfect showcase for that diversity.

When I arrived at Lyneham Chapel, I had to park in the street because the car park was completely packed out. This was an exciting foretaste of the atmosphere in the hall, which was equally packed out—a good thing to see. Around the perimeter of the hall stalls from various nationalities represented in the stake were set up. Most of these were decorated simply, with things like flags or traditional fabrics, but the Samoan Saints had gone all out, erecting a thatch roof over their tables.

The following nationalities each had a stall: American, Australian, Greek, English, Samoan, New Zealander, Chinese, Tongan, Japanese, Filipino, Tahitian, and Scots. And each stall was serving up food specific to its nation. For example, the Americans had pumpkin pie, corn on the cob, and root beer, and the Scots had haggis and shortbread.

We’d been told that this was to be a ‘tasting’ experience only, but, in good Mormon fashion, it turned out to be a veritable feast. People—including me—were walking around for an hour or more with small plates heaped full of food, and yet not a single stall ran out of a single dish from what I could see. I personally ate wasabi-coated peas, Maori fish chowder, English pork pie, Greek spinach and feta triangles, baklava, eggplant dip, Filipino noodles and gingered chicken wings, boiled Chinese dumplings, Samoan chop suey, raw fish in coconut cream, and octopus stewed in coconut milk and its own ink. To drink I had Koko Samoa, a dark, bitter chocolate drink. I loved it all except for the pork pie. I had no idea anyone could ruin pork, that most versatile of all meats, but leave it to the English. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to try everything, but the stomach does have its limits.

After we’d all feasted, it was time for the programme, which matched the food in both diversity and quality. We enjoyed bagpiping, highland dances, dances from every major pacific island, Maori war chants, Scots ballads, Chilean dances, Chinese love songs, and American bluegrass. I think the performances ran on for about two hours, but no one seemed to want them to end, and the clapping and cheering never died down the whole night.

I think the thing I liked best about the night, though, was the thread of unity which tied all of this diversity together. Despite our various points of origin, we were all there together because the gospel has opened our eyes to our universal sameness as children of God, literally each other’s brothers and sisters—a fact reinforced when, at the end of the programme, we all bowed our heads together and thanked Heavenly Father for such a pleasant time together.