First Presbyterian Church - Boar's Head and Yule Log Festival

THE HISTORY
In nature the wild boar is a formidable beast commanding the respect of modern sportspeople. Speed, weight, a tough hide, a compacted body low to the ground, sharp tusks that can injure, conjures fearful images early ancestors overcame. As an Honor to the brave hunters who slew it, the boar, was the first dish served at great Roman feasts.

In Norman England, the boar was the sovereign of the forest - a menace to people and a icon of evil. By the 12th century, the serving of the boar's head at Christmastide had become symbolic of the triumph of Christ over Satan, begun with His birth at Christmas and manifested at Resurrection and ultimately, His showing forth to the Gentiles.

The yule log, a fresh log lighted by the last year's embers and representing both the warmth of the family fireside and the continuance of human life and concern, has from the earliest times symbolized the rekindling of love, and so of Love Himself incarnate. The old year passes and the new is born; yet the same Love lights each.

No one knows who planned the first Boar's Head procession, but Queens College, Oxford, records the Festival shortly after the founding of the University in 1340. After thr33 or four centuries at Oxford and Cambridge, added to the annual ceremony was the mince pie, the plum pudding, and cast as we see it here. The festival was a popular Christmas event of the great manor houses of England in the 17th century, and the custom was carried to colonial America, where the presentation was in Connecticut.

The festival begins when a yule sprite brings a lighted candle into the darkened church symbolizing the coming of Light into our darkened world. Representing the Church, a minister receives the light, and from this flickering flame rise the lights of the church itself. Announced by a fanfare, the Royal Court enters. The Boar's Head, symbolic of Christ's triumph over evil, follows, and is carried in stately procession. The rest of the royal household follows. Later come the woodsmen with the yule log, which represents the rekindling of Love; the Holy Family; the shepherds searching for the Christ; and finally the three kings, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

When all have assembled, the haunting poem of Christina Rossetti, "In The Bleak Midwinter" is sung by both cast and congregation. To the music of the Eucharistic hymn "Let all Mortal Flesh Keep Silence", the cast kneels in adoration of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords as the church is darkened and the Epiphany star shines overhead. Then after the assemblage has recessed, the yule sprite returns, and together the minister and the sprite carry forth the lighted candle to show that Christ is alight to all people.

2010 REHEARSAL AND PERFORMANCE PHOTOS