Tour of American Copycat Culture — Series Premiere
Washington National Cathedral, not quite original.
I love tours because I love fun facts, and I love fun facts because I love stories. In this series, I will take you on a tour of America, visiting landmarks that have become synonymous with American culture. However, this tour will not be like your eighth grade Washington D.C. trip. Imagine you are viewing these monuments through the lens of a future archeologist, excavating ruins from a time lost in history.
America is a young country in comparison to others. Most other countries gained their cultural identities 3–8 centuries ago, whereas the United States officially became an independent country 245 years ago. We struggled to create a culture away from our European roots. Independence was survival. We were a movement of people looking for somewhere better than where they were, ready to risk it all. We were a band of misfits and mixtures—people from Britain who longed for rebellion. The Colonists had French ancestors, Greek ancestors, African ancestors, Asian ancestors, and so on.
The Great American Melting Pot=Copycat Culture
Americans copied every other culture and then American Exceptionalism emerged. Bit of nationalism mixed with ethnocentrism that ultimately led to xenophobia, which is tragic and shameful.
xen·o·pho·bic
/zenəˈfōbik,ˌzēnəˈfōbik/
adjective
- having or showing a dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries.
“the xenophobic undertones of this argument”
Take, for example, the American French stereotype.
Americans view the French as effeminate and cowardly. Francophobia and xenophobic sentiments towards the French have been an established part of the Culture of the United States. But did Americans forget that there wouldn’t be an American Revolution without France? Americans didn’t just copy French laws either, they copied their architecture as well.
Exhibit A. The Washington National Cathedral and Notre Dame
Notre Dame built in 1163. Washington Cathedral built in 1907.
Yes, the cathedrals look alike. But let’s dive a little deeper, shall we? The similarities do not stop there.
Gargoyles: Modern Monsters
Both cathedrals have bizarre busts lining their façades, but they were not part of either of the original designs. The fantastic creatures now sitting atop the towers of Notre Dame were added in the 19th century during the radical restoration overseen by Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc who was inspired by his romantic vision of the past.
The creatures featured along the Washington National Cathedral are even more peculiar. In the 1980s when the two west towers were under construction, the Cathedral held a design-a-carving contest for children and the winners of the contest saw their designs come to life in stone grotesque. Among the winners were a raccoon, a girl with pigtails and braces, a man with large teeth and an umbrella, and even the infamous Star Wars villain, Darth Vader.
Home of Holy Artifacts
The Notre Dame Cathedral is said to house one of the most important religious artifacts in Christianity: the “Holy Crown of Thorns” worn by Jesus Christ. Although this can’t be undoubtedly proven, some historians suggest that this is the authentic relic Jesus wore on his head when he was tortured. There’s also a piece of the Cross and a nail which are thought to have been used in the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
The Washington National Cathedral holds a celestial object within its walls as well. The Space Window on the south aisle of the Cathedral contains a piece of lunar rock, the only moon rock given by NASA to a nongovernmental institution. Neil Armstrong and fellow Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins presented the sample — “a fragment of creation, from beyond the Earth” — to the Cathedral on July 21, 1974.
Familiar “Forests”
Perhaps the strangest similarity between these two cathedrals is that they are both connected to ancient forests. The Washington National Cathedral is home to one of the few old growth forests still standing in the nation’s capital, Olmsted Woods, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.
The roof structure of the Notre Dame was commonly nicknamed “the Forest” due to the fact that it’s made entirely out of wood. The wood-timber frame was made of more than 1300 trees and dated back to the 12th-century. Each beam was made from an individual tree. Sadly, this roof structure was consumed in the flames of the devastating fire at the Notre-Dame in April of 2019.
As with all the elements of the Notre Dame cathedral, they were built over time, and reflect how each monument is more of a collage of architectural trends and leadership than the culmination of one person’s vision. You have to fake it until you make it, and the French started just like we did.
Recently, we have seen xenophobia in full force, through racist messaging and horrific hate crimes against people of color who are citizens of this country. We must remember we are a country built by immigrants, and our customs are a collection of cultures from around the world.
Finding common ground is the key to banishing xenophobia, and we have a whole lot more ground to cover. Look out for the next stop on the tour, the Lincoln Memorial!
