The International Food Square, Cultural Exhibits, Roving Entertainers and Children's Activities are ongoing throughout the three day festival. You won't want to miss a beat at the 2008 Mobile International Festival's 25th Anniversary Celebration! This year's festival is scheduled for Saturday, November 22, Mobile Alabama.

MOBILE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL PLANNED COMMUNITY-WIDE ACTIVITIES CALENDER - 25TH YEAR IN 2008

Butterfly is the 2008 symbol. The MIF butterfly is the metamorphosis of the festival’s development. In having events all year-round entwined with Mobile International Festival, it is fitting to see the role MIF has played and continues to play in the community. It is a force that strengthens people with different cultural backgrounds to work together for a common goal that benefits our city.

Here is a Japanese haiku that best describes this role:

A butterfly
Stitching together
The rows of barley

Butterfly is the festival holding together 70 nations from our community to unite in presenting an annual event in November. “Rows of barley” have different heights that represent people from different cultures. Barley is food for people … MIF is “food” for knowledge of the world and its cultures.

Art and educational institutions, together with MIF member organizations from various international enclaves in our communities, will celebrate, honor, recognize or collaborate with Mobile International Festival in 2008 at their special or annual events. The member events celebrate their cultural traditions, heritage and faith.

January 13 - Installation of Officers by the Lebanese-American Club of Mobile at Café Royal at Van Antwerp Building on Dauphin Street with special guests.

January-February - Photo exhibition consisting of twenty photographs taken in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Slovakia, Pakistan, India, China and USA by Dr. Turner Rogers at Room 380 of the University Commons at the University of South Alabama. Open to the public.

February 1-7 - MIF officers to go to Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, to attend Carnival and visit government officials as part of a cultural exchange program.

February 3 - Vietnamese New Year celebration by Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces Veterans Association at a private home

February 7, 6:00 p.m. - Chinese New Year celebration at the Liu Institute at 704 Lakeside Drive, Mobile, AL 36693. Tel. 343-6023

February 9 - Robert Burns Night at Herons Lake Country Club – Scottish Society of Mobile. Call Randy Seale at 341-1999.

February 14, 4:00 p.m. - Additional photo sessions set up by Stephen Savage for MIF members at Stewartfield Home, Spring Hill College

February 18-22 – Visit to Mobile from Katowice, Poland (sister city) by official delegation of four led by Mayor Piotr Uszok. Official meetings were arranged for them.

February 21 - Painting of a Tribal Filipina and an old Japanese Kimono that belonged to the MIF founder, Dr. Annelle Jerome, to Mobile Museum of Art to be displayed permanently in the Asian Exhibits Room.

March 6-22 - Trip to China (Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing) to participate in the Welcome Olympics Games Cup and visit Shaolin temples sponsored by Liu Institute and East-West Cultural Exchange Foundation.

March 18, 7:00 p.m. – Start of the celebration of the Iranian Norouz (New Year) at the home of Mahin & Reza Hejazi with the “char shambeh soory” (jumping over the fire). The fire symbolizes the energy that one will get when you jump over it.

March 21, 6:00 p.m. – Iranian Norouz (New Year) dinner dance at Marriott Hotel by the Iranian American Society of Mobile. Call Reza at Food Pak at 341-1497.

March 21 – Scottish Society of Mobile will travel to Montgomery, AL, to meet with Governor Bob Riley to receive the signed Proclamation declaring April as Scottish Heritage Month in the state of Alabama.

April 6 – National Tartan Day celebration at the Municipal Park by the Scottish Society of Mobile

April 13 - Cambodian New Year – Cambodian American Community at their temple on Angkor Road, Irvington

April 27 - Thai New Year – Wat Lao Buddaraksa Temple, Irvington

April 25-27 - Zuri Middle East Dance Group will host a seminar taught by Mira Betz, a well-known choreographer and dancer in Middle Eastern dancing, to benefit 15 Place for the Homeless at the Ashbury Hotel on West I-65 Service Road.

April 30– Dr. David Ellis, president of Mobile-Kosice Association (MOKA), will visit Kosice, Slovakia, to attend the annual May Day celebration honoring the sister-city twinning between Mobile and Kosice.

May 6 - Laotion New Year - Buddha Viahara Temple, Irvington

May 9-13 – Celebration of the 15-year anniversary of sister-city relationship between Ichihara, Japan, and Mobile. Visitors from Japan will plant commemorative trees in the Japanese Garden site.

May 25 – A holy mass at St. Joseph’s Chapel of Spring Hill College followed by a Santacruzan, a traditional Catholic procession in the Philippines honoring the finding of the holy cross by St. Helena during the month of May, will be held in campus and presented by the Filipino-American Association of Greater Mobile.

June 28 – “Conferencia de Salud Para Mujeres Hispanica” will be held at the Wallace Auditorium of Spring Hill Memorial Hospital from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

July 12 - La fete de la Bastille – Alliance Francaise

July 12-19 – Four faculty members from the University of Costa Rica will visit Mobile upon invitation by the College of Education, University of South Alabama

July 25 - Reception for “Where are they now?” Reunion for the MIF scholars at Stewartfield Home.

July 25-August 4 – Summer Students Exchange from Mobile/Baldwin schools to Ichihara City, Japan. Adults will accompany the students.

August - Pen pal programs

September 3 – Mr. Barrington Irving will speak to a Student Assembly at Davidson High School Auditorium. Students will come from public, private and parochial high schools. This is free of charge to the high school students. MIF sponsors will be invited. Mr. Irving, who is 23 years old and born in Jamaica, is the youngest pilot and first black American to fly solo around the world. He stopped in Mobile from his round-the-world flight enroute to Miami where he lives. Luncheon will be hosted for Mr. Barrington Irving. The visit of Mr. Barrington Irving is confirmed.

September (TBA) - Start of arts education program on Yoruba culture. Mrs. Malvina Holloway, a retired teacher and artist, conducts teach-ins in two middle schools and six elementary schools in Baldwin and Mobile counties showcasing this interesting West African culture through history and art. This program, co-sponsored by Alabama State Council on the Arts, is on its fourth year.

October 3-November 18 - Photography exhibition by Stephen Savage set in a sculptural design by John Smith at the Mobile Museum of Art. Series will capture faces of members from different countries. Mobile Museum of Art is celebrating Mobile International Festival’s 25th year. This exhibition will also be exhibited in the MIF David McCann Art Gallery.

October 10 - Museum of Mobile, in collaboration with MIF, will feature Ms. Deborah Ferguson, the dancing storyteller, for a series of storytelling on Yoruba culture in the permanent exhibitions of the Slavery. This will be open to school children during the day. A symposium and reception will be held in the evening. Mrs. Malvina Holloway will also speak on this same subject. Entertainment will feature Mr. Curtis Pierre, an expert on Brazilian drumming. (Yoruba culture from West Africa is prevalent in Brazil and Caribbean countries.)

October (TBA) - Inter-cultural Dialogue Banquet – USA Turkish Students Association and Euphrates Cultural Center of Mobile.

October (TBA) - Murphy HS band will perform in Cockburn, Australia, as part of sister-city cultural exchange program.

October 25 - Diwali (Festival of Lights) is a harvest festival before winter celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs – India Association of Greater Mobile.

October 26, 1:00 p.m. – Catholic holy mass that precedes the annual Hispanic Fiesta at 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m., St. Ignatius Catholic Church on Spring Hill Avenue – Catholic Hispanic Ministries.

November 6-8 - GreekFest held at the Anunciation Orthodox Church on Ann Street

November (TBA) – Puppeteers from Kosice, Slovakia, sponsored by Mobile-Kosice Association (MOKA) will perform at the festival and some schools before the event.

November 20-21 - Mobile International Festival Student Days, Mobile Civic Center

November 22 – Mobile International Festival Family Day, Mobile Civic Center

November 21-24 – Confirmed visit of former President Rodrigo Carazo Odio of Costa Rica.

December 8 – Mobile International Festival Christmas and Holiday party at Stewartfield Home, Spring Hill College

December 14 - Christmas party at the Mobile Garden Center at corner of Forest Hill Drive and Ziegler Blvd. – German-American Friendship Club

Date TBA:
Etchings of where Anton Chekov, a well-known playwriter, stayed or lived in Russia from the collection of University of South Alabama Library will be exhibited as part of Mobile and Rostov-on-Don, Russia sister-city project in Laidlaw Arts Center.

MIF expects more activities planned by members and sister-city organizations to coincide with the 25th anniversary celebration.

Desserts