Life After Windbird, Day 128: Christmas Revels 2016
Date: Sunday, December 18, 2016
Weather: Overcast; High Temp 58, Low 35 degrees F
Location: At Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA
I arrived at Heather and Jed’s this morning as everyone was scurrying around, getting ready to travel to Boston. Actually, we were headed across the river from Boston to Cambridge to attend Christmas Revels 2016. While we were waiting to go, I took the opportunity to snap some photos of the very handsome Goldstone family.
Jonah was running around in long velvet jacket proclaiming himself to be Harry Potter.
Ollie was running around a stuffed Santa and his little mouth in the shape of an ‘o’ chanting, “Ho-Ho-Ho” and persuaded Oma to join him.
Sam was just looking so grown up.
I got one photo of the whole family (not an easy feat) and then we were off.
Revels is a theatrical celebration of the holiday season, winter solstice in particular, which is presented through song and dance. Revels was ‘born’ in 1971 in Cambridge. It is the same age as Jed! From the Harvard campus, this celebration has spread to nine other locations in this country—Dartmouth in New Hampshire, New York, Washington, DC, Boulder, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. All of these Revels organizations are linked, but they choose their own theme each year. Basically, a Revels production focuses on a group of people from around the world and tells their story through song and dance, giving particular emphasis to their holiday cultural traditions. This year at the Sanders Theater on the Harvard campus, we were transported to the part of Canada that is today Nova Scotia to watch the story of the French immigrants who were called Acadiens or Cadiens. As this group of people were eventually forced south to the bayous of Louisiana where they became known as Cajuns. Today’s production was a lively with lots of Acadien and Cajun music, but it also featured the Revels favorites–Sussex Mummers Carol and Lord of the Dance, among others. The audience is encouraged to sing along on certain songs and everyone in the theater holds hands and weaves their way to the main lobby for intermission singing ‘Lord of the Dance.’ And the Cambridge Revels always ends with ‘snow’ falling in the theater as the audience joins in to sing ‘Dona Novis Pacem’ which means ‘Grant Us Peace.’ What a perfect way to usher in the holiday season.
After the show, we walked through Harvard Yard to Harvard Square where we did a little window shopping. We spent some time in the Cambridge Artists Cooperative ogling at the wonderful handmade items and visited the only Curious George store in the country. We then had dinner before heading home, so when we arrived in Falmouth we had sleepy little boys who were carried into the house for “a long winter’s nap”.
