Bernadette del Prado
Staff Writer
On Jan. 11, New Hope-Solebury’s Model United Nations (MUN) presented the different cultures and ethnicities of our school in its first Culture Night Fundraiser. MUN was inspired by the popular event in the UES, Heritage Night, and wanted to bring a similar concept to the high school. The event displayed different food, games, and decorations from all around the world to show the hidden cultures that NHS celebrates.
The two-hour event displayed stands from Ireland to Argentina to Egypt, giving everyone a little taste of each country. The Israel stand prepared small appetizers, such as classic pita with hummus, tomato salad, and delicious Israeli chocolate.The Philippines stand demonstrated a traditional dance called Tinikling, translating to Bamboo Dance, where the dancer attempts to dodge two bamboo sticks while trying to skip gracefully through them. The Sweden stand demonstrated a lawn game called Kubb, which involves trying to knock down an opponent’s blocks without knocking over the king.
“I was surprised by how many cultures were represented and I really enjoyed trying food from different countries,” said senior Shayna Berman.
Culture Night brought the community together to raise awareness of the different backgrounds NHS has to offer. Being in a very small and closed-off community, many people in New Hope aren’t familiar with some practices and beliefs outside of the U.S. NHS MUN wanted to especially establish the event in high school, as they believe teenagers should be open-minded with the array of cultures our world celebrates.
“I loved being able to share my culture with delicious food no one knew about,” said senior Sophia Carroll, who was representing Greece. Culture Night was a successful event for NHS MUN and they hope for it to become an annual, or even semi-annual, event for the school.
