November 10-16, 2025
Join us from November 10-16 for Boston Children’s Museum’s inaugural Community Gathering Table, a weeklong program inviting children and families to experience storytelling, interactive arts performances, and hands-on activities that highlight how different communities connect and make meaning together.
What is the Community Gathering Table?
The stories we tell, and the ones we listen to, help us understand who we are and what we believe. These values and beliefs show up in the traditions we share with other people — from daily rituals, to special celebrations, to moments of reflection.
Boston Children’s Museum’s Community Gathering Table is a real table that invites children and families to gather, just like at home. From around the table, visitors will come together to share and learn about beliefs and traditions through music, storytelling, games, dance, visual arts, objects, and more.
Monday, November 10
1pm-2pm
Community Gathering Table: More Than a Meal
Join us for a screening of More Than a Meal — a specially created video project that showcases cuisines from the AAPI diaspora, and the families and stories that inspire them. While you watch, create your own plate to add to the Community Gathering Table!
Filmed in neighborhoods across the Boston area, More Than a Meal features six restaurant owners whose dishes reflect generations of memory, migration, and creativity. Visitors will be welcomed into the rarely seen kitchens where recipes come to life—where teams of cooks, chefs, and kitchen staff work side by side to bring flavors, stories, and traditions to the table with care and skill. Through a first-person perspective, experience how cooking connects people across time and place, and how sharing a meal can be a powerful way to show love, keep memories alive, and build community.
Featured restaurants:
Ariana Restaurant
Japonaise Bakery
Momo Masala
Pho Viet’s
Silk Road Uyghur Cuisine
Yoma Boston
Tuesday, November 11
11:30am-12:30pm
2:00pm-3:00pm
Community Gathering Table: Rhythm and Movement from Muslim Traditions
Join musician Karim Nagi for a lively, hands-on performance honoring songs, rhythms, and dances from Islamic communities across the world – from Egypt to Western China. Visitors will hear stories about the instruments he plays, and learn about the creative ways music and storytelling can reflect beliefs, traditions, and history.
Community Gathering Table: Collections Instruments from Muslim Traditions
12:30pm-1:30pm
Between performances, take a break to see and touch historic instruments from Muslim traditions with our Collections team.
Wednesday, November 12
2:00pm-3:00pm
Community Gathering Table: What My Family Gave Me
Join us for an English-Spanish story time of Tortillas and Lullabies, by Lynn Reiser, about how traditions are handed down through family. Then, see and touch Collections objects that were passed down through families before they came to the Museum, and draw or write about the traditions, heirlooms, stories, hobbies, recipes, or skills that have been passed down in your family!
Thursday, November 13
11:30am-12:00pm
Community Gathering Table: Kamishibai Storytime – Hats for Jizos (Kasa Jizo)
Join us for a special storytime presented in the style of traditional Japanese kamishibai! Experience Japanese culture and learn about beliefs through the tale of “Hats for Jizos (Kasa Jizo).” This heartwarming winter story highlights themes of kindness and compassion.
The story incorporates various traditions and customs from both Buddhism and Shinto religions as people prepare to welcome the new year. While listening, we invite you to share your own traditions and beliefs.
Friday, November 14
1:00pm-2:00pm
Community Gathering Table: Hubbub Bowl Game
Learn a traditional Native American art form and game in this workshop with a visiting educator from the Tomaquag Museum. You will learn how to play hubbub and then create and decorate your own bowls to play with at home.
Saturday, November 15
11:00am-3:00pm
Community Gathering Table: Building an Ofrenda
Join us for a colorful celebration of Día de los Muertos, a Mexican tradition that honors family and friends who have died. Learn about the making of an ofrenda (altar), created with flowers, candles, and photos of loved ones.
Understand the meanings of the seven levels of the ofrenda, observe the craft of papel picado, and enjoy stories, music, and art that celebrate life, love, and memory.
Sunday, November 16
1:30pm-2:30pm
Community Gathering Table: Dancing the Divine of Natural Elements, with Isaura Oliveira & Power of Skirts
Join Mestra Isaura and the Power of Skirts collective for a colorful dance performance celebrating the elements of water, earth, fire, and air. This performance honors how Indigenous and African traditions understand nature as sacred, being a source of medicine, spirituality, art, joy, and life. In this symbolic performance, Mestra Isaura shares her lived experience of Afro-Brazilian culture, dance, music, spoken words, and colorful costumes. Mestra Isaura is an artist, dancer, story teller, choreographer, and community leader, born and raised in Salvador, Bahia, known as the cradle of African culture in Brazil.