By Waiting behind pulleys and curtains at the Twentieth Century Club stage, a cast of tiny angels whispers. They are straightening each other’s gold tinsel halos, whispering through cupped hands and twirling in circles as they wait for their cue. As the violin starts playing, the spinning stops, and they crowd beside a young woman who patiently holds her finger to her lips and shoos them onstage to find their marks among Wise Men and mice and all the characters from the most famous manger. Minutes in, the large ballroom is full of the resonance of more than a hundred voices singing together. The woman in the wings sings loudly any verses the children may hesitate on and Joy to the World, Silent Night, the First Noel, echo off the wooden floors and lift to the ceiling.
Says lead pastor Matthew Koerber, 42, of Greenfield: “We live in a society that often tells us that meaning is individual. Often our understanding of events is formed by communities. What I’m so thankful for tonight is all the people who were involved.” Among the college students who volunteer to play music, the mother who leads the children through rehearsals, the father-to-be who narrates, and the behind-the-scenes helpers, it is the chance to strengthen and build community. “That picture of people in all their stages of life is important to understand what makes things meaningful,” he said.
Across town a few nights prior, another community was coming together to celebrate the season at Hazelwood’s Light Up Night. Songs from carolers, the clop of horse hooves, and the high lilting laugh of the Queen of the Snow Elves mingled together.
Another group gathered Downtown to honor the dark side of the season at Krampusnacht’s Krampus Crawl. Revelers in fur and horns swatted each other with bundles of sticks as they jumped from bar to bar surrounding Market Square’s Christmas village. “Pittsburgh people should be attracted to this and love it because we love Halloween, we’re crazy about Christmas, and this is a little bit of both,” said organizer Mark Menold of the tradition, which stems from European Christmas folklore of a devil-like beast coming to visit children who have been bad a few weeks before Christmas. “It bridges that lull in between. There’s no presents and there’s no family or stress.”
