{"id":4860,"date":"2016-12-10T00:05:32","date_gmt":"2016-12-10T05:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/?p=4860"},"modified":"2019-03-06T22:26:14","modified_gmt":"2019-03-07T03:26:14","slug":"in-focus-light-up-the-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/2016\/12\/10\/in-focus-light-up-the-night\/","title":{"rendered":"In Focus: Light Up the Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

Waiting behind pulleys and curtains at the Twentieth Century Club stage, a cast of tiny angels whispers. They are straightening each other\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Says lead pastor Matthew Koerber, 42, of Greenfield: \u201cWe live in a society that often tells us that meaning is individual. Often our understanding of events is formed by communities. What I\u2019m so thankful for tonight is all the people who were involved.\u201d 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. \u201cThat picture of people in all their stages of life is important to understand what makes things meaningful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Across town a few nights prior, another community was coming together to celebrate the season at Hazelwood\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Another group gathered Downtown to honor the dark side of the season at Krampusnacht\u2019s Krampus Crawl. Revelers in fur and horns swatted each other with bundles of sticks as they jumped from bar to bar surrounding Market Square\u2019s Christmas village. \u201cPittsburgh people should be attracted to this and love it because we love Halloween, we\u2019re crazy about Christmas, and this is a little bit of both,\u201d 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. \u201cIt bridges that lull in between. There\u2019s no presents and there\u2019s no family or stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

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From left to right, Stella Koerber, 5, of Greenfield, Grace Girard, 7, of Hampton, Mary Boyd Barker, 10, of Fox Chapel, and her sisters Charlotte, 7, and Libby, 5, play as they wait backstage to perform in City Reformed Presbyterian Church’s ‘meaning of Christmas’ play at the Twentieth Century Club in Oakland on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016. “Often our understanding of events is formed by communities,” said Koerber’s father, Matthew Koerber, 42, lead pastor for the church. “What I’m so thankful for tonight is all the people who were involved.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Queen of the Snow Elves shakes the hands of Anthony Minniefield, Jr., left, 9, and Adyn Johnson, 4, in their neighborhood of Hazelwood during the area’s light up night celebrations on Monday, Dec. 5, 2016. “I’ve been coming from the North Pole to Hazelwood for many years,” said the Queen, who also goes by Donna Penoyer during her summers in Millville.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Maria Boyarskaya, 23, of Neville Island, arranges glass figurines at Gifts From Afar in Peoples Gas Holiday Market in Market Square downtown on Friday, Dec. 2, 2016. Gifts from Afar sells crafts from Boyarskaya’s native Ukraine, as well as Russia, Poland and Lithuania.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Laraeye Harvin, 26, keeps an arm around her son, Jamaal Cook, 3, as they take a horse and carriage ride around their neighborhood of Hazelwood during the area’s light up night celebrations on Monday, Dec. 5, 2016. Hazelwood’s streets were ready for the holidays with horse and carriage rides, visits from Santa, carolers and other music and festivities.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Jamie Agpar, 31, of East Liberty, lights his pipe as he waits for his fellow Krampus-attired revelers to leave a bar downtown on Monday, Dec. 5, 2016. “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 hitting the town in the Krampus tradition, which stems from European Christmas folklore. “It bridges that lull in between. There’s no presents and there’s no family and stress.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Waiting behind pulleys and curtains at the Twentieth Century Club stage, a cast of tiny angels whispers. Across town, devils are gathering around Market Square, celebrating the darker side of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":4861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4,15,187,132],"tags":[],"coauthors":[196],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2016\/12\/20161210smsInFocus01.jpg?fit=3600%2C2395&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4860"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4860"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4875,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4860\/revisions\/4875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4860"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}