Tuesday, January 8, 2013

An Epiphany Pageant

This past Sunday marked our annual Christmas pageant....
The day of the pageant also marks my 2 year anniversary with our church. So funny to think that I arrived there as a guest and visitor to view the pageant...and now I am directing the youth program! Full circle.

We hold our Christmas pageant after the Christmas Season...which some find odd. I very much love it. First, the pageant doesn't become "one more thing to have to do" right before Christmas when families are rushing about and most likely exhausted. Our pageant is more about Epiphany, a part of the nativity story which children may not be so familiar with.

So wonderful that this year the date of our pageant landed right on Epiphany, January 6th. It was a beautiful pageant; the children were incredibly reverent and focused. It is a day I'll never forget. These photos speak for themselves.

Photos by Ian Kindle


Face painting by Lauren Kindle

The sheep were wrapped in sheepskin rugs....fluffy!

Chalk rendering in my Sunday School room of Mother Mary by Lauren Kindle. I don't think I'll ever be able to erase it!

At the manger...

Mary's clothes...and manger.

(excerpt from our pageant script... text taken from "The Seasonal Festivals in Early Childhood: Seeking the Universally Human" available from WECAN books. I highly recommend this book! It is part of my required text for my Spring classes and with good reason, I believe!)

Away in the east a golden star
Called three wise kings from afar;
It shone so brightly in the darkest night
And beckoned them on to the child of light



sung: golden, golden, shines the star, shines the star so brightly; golden, golden shines the star, shines the star so brightly…

The kings come riding one, two, three,
 Over the desert, over the sea,
 They followed the star to the Child so bright
And offered their gifts to the King of Light…


(King 1):
Oh dearest Child, I bring you gold,
For you its glory shall unfold

(King 2):
With all my heart I bring with me Frankincense to honor thee

(King 3):
Myrhh is what I offer you,
Take my love and praises, too.

Thank you for your gifts you bring, thank you, oh royal earthly kings.
 

Our Sunday School Nursery


My little boy as a sheep. This might be one of my all time favorite photos.




Christmas has come and gone....and the mornings feel different to me. Chickadees are flitting everywhere and I  hear them piping their songs much to my delight. W wakes up in the morning shouting "Look at the pink sky! Wow! Whoa! Look at that! It's pink!" Our tree has been whisked away by the angels....well, leaving a tell tale trail of dried pine needles; their crispness letting us know that something is over...and something is beginning.


 The gift the angels left us in place of our Christmas Tree.


*Thank you to all who took interest in the current giveaway for a Flexi Clip! There is still time to enter:)*
 

2 comments:

  1. A lovely way to celebrate Epiphany. Those sheep and angels are just adorable. Gone is our tree (though we take our tree down to ring in the new year)and the chickadees are not so much 'piping their songs' as shrilly demanding I refill the bird feeders today;) With this thaw we've been having I will also leave out oranges for the orioles just in case they are winging their way back early. Take care.

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  2. My daughter would have loved to be a part of such a pageant and able to enter into the story so fully like this. What kind of church are you part of?

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