Overview
For each evening, we tried to have a variety of activities that would engage people at all ages.
Basic flow of the session:
15 minutes - gathering and food.
15-30 minutes - large group presentation
60-75 minutes - small group rotation
15-30 minutes - large group reprise
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This was obviously different for each evening, depending on the activities, as you will see below, but this was the general idea.
Craft
Craft: we created a quilt block for each evening, which we then incorporated into two banners and a large wall hanging. The banners were part of our float in the town parade, and the wall hanging will go with us to events around the community. We found that having the craft provide continuity through the week was helpful, and it gave us something to share afterwards. However, most nights we did not have crafts for folks to take home afterward. No one seemed too put out by that, but we have been brainstorming ideas for other crafts that they might take with them in the future. One idea we’ve had was beads - many traditions use some forms of prayer beads. Please share other ideas with us!
Food
Each evening we had some kind of food as part of our learning. This was probably the most popular item on any given night. Some cautions:
food allergies are everywhere. Make sure you label any potential allergens.
many people have restrictions about meat (especially pork) and alcohol. Again, labels!
try to provide authentic alternatives where possible, so that everyone can be included.
Ramadan made things tricky for us (see Day 3). Be aware of special holidays or fast days, and work with your guests to find creative solutions.
Include a space on your registration form for food restrictions to be listed.
Decorations
Maps
People love to look at maps, and it really helps them make things more concrete. We projected a world map onto a large piece of white duck canvas, and then traced the lines with black fabric markers, making a wall-sized map of the world. We then used different colored star stickers to show the distribution of the different religious traditions all around the world​
Purple star = Christianity
Blue star = Judaism
Green star = Islam
Yellow star = Hinduism
Orange star = Buddhism
a large star stood for 100 million people
a small star stood for 10 million people
where there were smaller but significant numbers (such as for Judaism) we connected a tag to a star with yarn in the same color, and wrote the population number on there; we did this for all 5 in the U.S.
Maps also give the opportunity to show historic migrations, as well as major holy sites or other important cities.
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Calendars
You can find wall calendars online for all of these tradition, or check with your local connections. We created a poster showing the cycle of the lunar calendar for Islam and Hinduism. We had a circle calendar for Judaism that showed where the Gregorian months and Jewish months overlapped, and where the holidays fall. We had colorful printouts that showed the names of the Islamic months in English and Arabic letters. A yearly cycle of holy days and festivals would be helpful for most people as well.
Prayers
Each tradition has prayer beads, and many have prayer shawls, rugs, or other similar items. If it is deemed appropriate by your interfaith guests, display some of these. Prayer times and positions are also interesting and can be displayed as posters.
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Languages
The Hebrew alphabet, Islamic script, Sanskrit and Hindi letters, and the script found across Buddhist countries are all beautiful, and many can be found as posters and books to decorate with.
Clothing
Are there items of clothing from different cultures associated with a particular faith tradition? Saris, chadors, hijabs, cassocks, robes, shoes (or bare feet), yarmulkes, are all examples.
Family Trees
We wanted to have a huge faith family tree for the whole world, broken down into each tradition and its subgroup, but we ran out of time and energy to make it happen. However, as it turned out, each of our guests spent some time explaining the divisions within their tradition. For a few, we had visuals to help us along, but this would make a very compelling display, and we will work on one for next time. Information and interactive diagrams can be found online at http://www.thearda.com/denoms/families/trees/index.asp.
Books
So many books! You will find a bibliography of books we used at then end of each day’s activities. Most of these were available to us from the local library and it’s affiliates. A few we had to seek out and purchase. There are many others, so feel free to find what works for you. And of course there are the Scriptural books that are central to each tradition: the Christian Bible; the Hebrew Torah, Prophets, Writings (Tanakh) and Talmud; the Qu’ran; the Hindu Bahadvad Gita; the Buddhist Pali Canon, Tibetan Book of the Dead, and Mahayana Sutras.
Leaders
Of course, if you can, invite local leaders to come present about their faith and meet people. But you can also find posters of world leaders and historical figures to decorate with. For African-American Christianity, Harriet Tubman, Fredrick Douglass, and Martin Luther King, Jr., are a few. Famous Jews include Anne Frank, Albert Einstein, Leonard Nimoy, and Golda Meir. Famous Muslims include Muhammad Ali, Malala Yousafzai, Zayn Malik, and Dr. Oz. Hindu celebrities include Mahatma Gandhi, hip-hop star MIA, Ravi Shankar, Kal Penn, and Apu from the Simpsons. Well-known Buddhists include the Dalai Lama, Richard Gere, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Jet Li.