Shadi Nativity

Another cool thing about El Cerrito is the Sundar Shadi Holiday Display. I found it by accident because it’s on the route to my daughter’s daycare.

According to a flier at the display, Sundar Shadi was from India. He moved to the US in 1921. Although he got a master’s degree from UC Berkeley, he said they didn’t hire non-citizens back then, so he got a job pumping gas.

His wife studied Medieval Spanish. She asked Sundar to put up a Star of Bethlehem. He did it as a gift to the nation and the community that had done so much for him. Over the next 30 years he added to the display, making sculptures himself from reused items.

Sundar finally stopped doing the display in 1997 when he was 97 years old and his eyesight was going. The family trust donated the whole display in 2000 to a local chapter of the Soroptimist International organization.

Sundar Shadi died in 2001, but volunteers keep the display going. It’s already taken down this year, but you can look for it next year on Moeser Lane in El Cerrito near Galvin Drive.

Although El Cerrito is but a suburb of Oakland and even San Francisco, it is neat things like this that give it an intimate small-town, hometown feel.

If you want to buy a home in or near El Cerrito, I’d be more than happy to help you find the right place.

Give me a call, TXT, or DM anytime.

Nathan Pierce, REALTOR® / Pierce Real Estate / Lic. 02081780 ♻
#PierceRealEstate #ElCerrito #EastBay #SundarShadiHolidayDisplay

My Mom taught English at El Cerrito High, his daughter was in her class. I was born the same year he started putting up the Nativity Scene. Mom said, she got invited in for tea. I remember we went to see it every year until he passed. It used to last the whole month till the traffic got so congested the neighbors made him shorten it to just 2 weeks. Mr Shadi you are missed but not forgotten