In Portugal, she said, families often create a Nativity scene inside their own homes that reflects the community in which they live. "You'll see not only Mary and Joseph, but a washer woman, a butcher, a baker — people who make up the whole community scene."

The variations in Nativities are but one expression of the different ways people seek God and play into a larger exhibit the museum is now hosting, entitled, "Seeking the Divine."

That display offers a wide variety of objects, featuring "instruments of praise" from several cultures, including tube zithers — African precursors to the piano that are played to accompany religious initiation and circumcision rites. A Maori incantation, a Shuar Shaman Curing Song, a Ganesha (Hindu) Mantra and a sacred Buddhist chant can be heard as ways of summoning the gods.

The sacredness of tobacco to ancient Native Americans is explained, as is the fact that cacao (chocolate) was used as a ritual substance to cure sickness and even serve as currency.

A highlight for many visitors, Criddle said, is a figure of Maximon, a child-sized figure of a Guatemalan man representing a blend of several characters: Mam, the god of the Mayan underworld; Judas Iscariot; agricultural spirits and the Conquistador Pedro Alvarado.

The figure is newly clothed each year in the finest apparel and presented with a variety of gifts, including cigars, cigarettes, money, tortillas, rum, silk scarves and Coca-Cola. Yet during Lent, he assumes the personage of Judas and is carried to the church, where parishioners hang him before returning him to his place within the village.

Criddle sees a hunger in locals for information about other people and places, she said. A program similar to the Christmas event was held to celebrate the Mexican Day of the Dead earlier this year. The crowd was standing-room-only and went well beyond the scheduled hours.

"It makes for a different kind of experience," than simply taking the kids to the mall to see Santa each year. Traditional Christmas stories from around the world are shared, along with music, a simple craft project and hot chocolate.

"I know there is at least one other cultural Christmas thing going on in Utah (earlier this month in the LDS Conference Center), but for Provo, this is it," Criddle said, adding most patrons are surprised to find there is a museum dedicated to cultural diversity in Utah County.

Other than a salaried curator and director, BYU students staff the museum and created an education department dedicated to community outreach, particularly for children. It became so popular last summer they had to offer it twice a week, rather than weekly as it had been scheduled.

The museum is located at 700 N. 100 East in Provo, and hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday. For information, see mpc.byu.edu.

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E-mail: carrie@desnews.com