Sun 8/24 @ 11AM-6PM
The significance and importance of Cleveland’s One World Day, celebrated at the Cleveland Cultural Gardens in Rockefeller Park for decades, has escalated since last year with attacks on immigrants ramped up to a horrifying levels, mostly based on lies. Yet, we’re a nation of immigrants, whose diversity is our greatest strength.
And the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, founded more than a century ago, celebrate that heritage in Cleveland. At that time, most of the immigrants — and gardens — were from European countries. In recent years, new gardens have been created by immigrant groups from Asian, African and South American cultures: new gardens created recently or on the drawing board included Colombian, Lebanese, Pakistani, Palestinian, Filipino and Peruvian Gardens.
On One World Day you can soak in all this diversity starting at the gardens’ Centennial Peace Plaza at 11am with the naturalization ceremony where you can see proud new Americans who arrived here from around the world getting sworn in as citizens. The Parade of Flags steps off from the Serbian Garden on the north end of MLK Boulevard at noon and makes its way south to the Croatian Garden, with delegations flaunting their native attire, dancing, playing music, waving banners and kicking soccer balls. That’s followed by a welcoming ceremony at 1pm with remarks from Cultural Gardens president Dr. Wael Kuory.
After that, the boulevard, closed to traffic for the day, will filled with activities. Each garden hosts performances and displays and many sell foods and crafts from their native countries. Stroll the length of the street (or bike or take a scooter) enjoy all the offerings which include food trucks and booths sponsored by a wide variety of organizations and local government agencies. There are performances on the Peace Plaza too, with the Singing Angels at 2pm, the Armenian Armfolk at 3pm, a Persian/Iranian dance performance at 3:45pm, the Murphy Irish Dancers at 4:15pm, and performers from the Julia de Burgos Center at 5pm.
One World Day is free and open to all — all ages, all races, all ethnicities and people of all types.