By Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.com
A Lord and his Lady. A magician. A jester. A midwife. A beggar. They are among the cast of 200 humans and animals that will bring the sights and sounds of a 15th century medieval English town to life when Springfield’s Trinity United Methodist Church mounts its annual Boar’s Head Festival in January.
A tradition that reaches back 2,000 years to the serving of a boar’s head during the Roman feasts in Norman England, the presentation of the Boar’s Head at Christmastime became a symbol of Christ’s triumph over Satan in the 12th century, according to information provided by Trinity.
“It’s a combination of the secular and the sacred, because back in medieval times there was no differentiation, the village revolved around the cathedral,” Isaacson said. “There are secular [songs] like “Deck the Halls” and sacred ones, like “The First Noel.”
Part interactive production, part pageant and ceremony, this celebration recreating a medieval celebration of the Epiphany brings together “acting, singing, dancing, storytelling, beautiful music, wonderful pageantry, laughter, silence, light, darkness and more,” Trinity Senior Pastor John Mueller wrote in his welcome message in the 2019 program.“This will be our 37th year,” Isaacson told Prime of the massive production, slated to take place the weekend of Jan. 10, 11 and 12, 2020. “We have this beautiful Gothic cathedral building that replicates something from England, it’s the perfect space for [this festival]. Most of the performers are church members – all the singers are. We do have some professional instrumentalists and three professional kings. But everyone who is in the festival is a member of Trinity, kids as well as adults.”in the 12th century, according to information provided by Trinity. By the 17th century, the Boar’s Head Festival – with a cast of characters much like the ones portrayed at each holiday season at Trinity – became a popular Christmas event. The tradition later traveled from England to America with the early colonists. Trinity modeled its annual festival – which was presented to the public for the first time in January of 1984 – on one presented by Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, which has hosted its own Boar’s Head Festival for 47 years, according to Trinity Musical Director Becky Isaacson.
Isaacson said the scene is set in the 45 minutes before the actual procession, when the “townspeople” come together to prepare the “village” for the festival. “The cast will actually engage in conversation with the [audience]” Isaacson said. “And there’s always a big Wassail song – a big drinking song of course – in the middle [of the preparations].
“We have all sorts of things going on...people are preparing the sanctuary as if it was medieval times and there’s always a bit of tension because things aren’t going right,” Isaacson continued. “The sheriff is there, he catches the thief who steals from one of the royals...sometimes the woodsman, if he sees someone with a fur coat, he tries to steal it.”
The scene set, the focus then shifts to the processional for the second half of the performance. This “begins with a little girl bringing a lighted candle to the minister, representing the light of Christ.” This is followed, Isaacson said, by “all the singers dressed as monks, the Lord and Lady, and their children, the woodsman and the yule log, the Three King and the animals. We have a big snow scene with snow sprites and snow actually falling from the peak of the sanctuary, and King Wenceslas, a benevolent king, to help the poor. The last scene is the Three Kings and the birth of the Christ child.”
Father Christmas, the shepherds, the adoration of the Christ child are also a part of the hour and a half production, which ends, she said, with the minister lighting a lantern from the original candle, then symbolically taking the “Light of Christ” out into the world.
Isaacson said planning for this annual celebration begins each April with the formation of the Festival committee and recruiting of the “very important” behind-the scenes staff. The adult cast is selected by the end of June and the children by September. After months of individual scene rehearsals, Isaacson said the entire cast does its first walk-through of the production on New Year’s Day, just 10 days before opening night!
Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. evening performances of Trinity’s Boar’s Head Festival, which take place Jan. 10, 11 and 12 in the sanctuary located at 361 Sumner Ave. in Springfield, MA., are still available, but typically “sell out quickly,” according to Isaacson. To purchase tickets, call the Box Office at 733-4759.
