Local Cub Scouts participate in Japanese tea ceremony
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Serving of tea; instructor Michael McKenna
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WARWICK - When Warwick resident Alicia Tate, a Den Mother with Cub Scout Pack 177, met Michael McKenna, an expert on Japanese culture, it occurred to her that her scouts might benefit from his experience.
She mentioned that to him and McKenna, who had once lived in Japan for more than 12 years and now works as a corporate liaison, offered to perform an authentic Japanese tea ceremony for her scouts.
McKenna has been a student of Japanese language and culture since 1967 when he began an intensive Japanese language course at the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies. He subsequently studied Japanese language and culture at Harvard and Columbia and received a Certificate in Japanese from the St. Joseph Institute of Japanese in Roppongi, Tokyo. For the remainder of the ‘70s, McKenna lived and worked in Kyoto. A number of years later, he returned to Japan as a business consultant for a three-year assignment in Tokyo.
In 1992, McKenna began a formal study of the Omotesenke tradition of Chanoyu, the Tea Ceremony. He has continued these studies since returning to New York in 1994 and, recently, received the designation of Lecturer from Omotesenke Headquarters.
On Friday, Jan. 8, the scouts and both den mothers, Alicia Tate and Ellen Soto, assembled in a room at the Warwick United Methodist Church on Forester Avenue for an official Japanese tea ceremony performed by McKenna.
The Japanese tea ceremony is a cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of green tea and there is a specific art or manner in which it is performed. It may also include the serving of sweets, which in this case, was much appreciated.
“This was a wonderful experience for our scouts,” said Tate. “They learned to be aware of their environment and others and to be polite to each other.”
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| Five of the scouts clockwise from the instructor, Michael McKenna: Patrick Shea, Aaron Ramos, Robert Bettini, Luke Soto, and Christopher Shea. |
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The scouts, for example, were taught to bow to the host and, when served, to ask the person to the right, “Do you mind if I go before you?”
Tate believes this event was more than just another field trip.
“Whenever we go hiking,” she said, “they always feel they’ve accomplished something as a team. I believe they came away from this experience discovering another level of what it means to belong to a team.”
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