News Release

2022 Winter Festival of Prairie Cultures Celebration

Date: November 16, 2022

     Winter Festival of Prairie Cultures Celebration 

BEATRICE, NEB. – Go back in time this holiday season, November 25 thru December 30, to see a beautiful tapestry of winter traditions of those who lived on the Great Plains at the beginning of the Homestead Era. The Homestead Act of 1862 served as an invitation for immigrants to seek free 160-acre homesteads in the United States and become citizens, resulting in the arrival of a variety of cultural and ethnic traditions to the United States. Our Winter Festival remembers this rich heritage and celebrates the cultures of those who settled the Great Plains as well as the cultural traditions that precede the Homestead Act. 

The Winter Festival of Prairie Cultures features decorated trees and tabletop displays featuring ornaments and hand-made crafts that reflect the spirit of hope, humor, traditions, and generosity which characterized winter celebrations on the Great Plains. 

In addition to the displays, there will be special programs activities presented on December 4, 10,11, and 18, 2022. These programs will be at the Education Center. They include: 

Sunday, December 4, 2:00 p.m. – Music from Around the World: David Marsh 

With over a dozen instruments and stories about each, Marsh will entertain with music from around the world. This multi-cultural program is a musical exposé of the influence that immigrants from around the world have had on our American culture. Audiences will learn about the creativity of the “folk” who developed the instruments and musical styles, the role music has played in traditional cultures and the musical influences various cultures have had on one another in America. 

Saturday, December 10, 1:15 p.m. – Jr Ranger Activity: Ornament Making 

Join Homestead National Historical Park’s volunteers and rangers for a family friendly ornament making activity. Participants will make weaved paper heart ornaments and gingerbread people, while learning the history of these crafts. 

Saturday, December 10, 2:00 p.m. – Holiday Music: Cortland Opry House Dulcimer Players 

The Cortland Opry House Dulcimer Players will play a variety of holiday songs on the dulcimer. A dulcimer is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings, which are stretched over a body that has no neck. With certain styles being relatively easy to learn to play, dulcimers became another outlet for music and entertainment on the homestead. 

Sunday, December 11, 2:00 p.m. – Songs and Dances of the Lakota: Jerome Kills Small Kills Small will describe the history and origin of Native American songs and dances. A lecturer and storyteller who makes hand drums and pow-wow-size wood drums, Kills Small also is a singer of Lakota songs who has traveled extensively as a member of the Oyate Singers of Vermillion, S.D. 

Sunday, December 18 – Nebraska’s Musical Smorgasbord: Chris Sayre 

Sayre will share in the songs and melodies that were brought to Nebraska by the various European ethnic groups who settled here in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This includes music originating from the British Isles, Czechoslovakia, Germany, the Scandinavian countries and others on the button accordion, English concertina, fretted dulcimer, guitar, mandolin, musical saw and bowed zither. 

Admission to Homestead National Historical Park and all events is free.  For information on available accommodations please contact Accessibility Coordinator, Amber Kirkendall at [phone] or [e-mail].  

Homestead National Historical Park has an exciting schedule of events planned for 2023. Keep up with the latest information by following us on Twitter (HomesteadNHP) and Facebook (Homestead National Historical Park).