It’s thankfully quiet after the holidays, Celtically speaking, but there’s an event coming up that needs some explanation. On January 13, St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Lafayette Hill (around the corner from Brittingham’s) is holding a Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival.
Like you, at first I wondered what fascination the Lutherans had with lunch meat. Really pricey lunch meat, too. But I did some digging. This pageant–a British import dating back to 1340–harks back to a time when boar was the first dish served at a medieval banquet. It was the prime rib of its day. A secular tradition, it eventually took on Christian overtones: The boar’s head, served at Christmas time, began to symbolize the triumph of the infant Jesus over sin, good over evil.
Legend has it the holiday event was born when a scholar at Queen’s College in Oxford encountered a wild boar on his travels and, having no other weapon, rammed a philosophy book down its throat, choking it to death. Later that night, the scholar and his colleagues enjoyed roasted boar’s head, which was brought into the dining hall by carolers singing “in honor of the King of Bliss.”
As time went on, the Boar’s Head pageant included the story of the nativity, the Three Kings, Good King Wencelas, carolers, mince pie and plum pudding, and a Yule log, lit from last year’s ember.
The festival was first celebrated in the US the 1800s in Troy, NY, with music described as “exquisite.”
Expect beautiful music and pageantry at St. Peter’s annual staging (delayed this year because of renovations to the beautiful 256-year-old church), which includes some 200 performers, crew, and prop masters, not to mention the Cameron Highland Pipe Band (ah, you knew there was a Celtic connection, didn’t you?). A harpist will play “Silent Night” with a full orchestra accompaniment. You’ll think you’re in the 14th century.
For more information, go to www.stpeterslafayettehill.org, or call 610-828-3098.
Looking ahead: Irish Northern Aid rescheduled its 26th annual testimonial dinner for Saturday, January 26, at the Irish Center. Among the honorees are Kathy McGee Burns of the Donegal Society and the St. Patrick’s Day Observance Association; Charlie Schlegel of Irish Northern Aid and the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and Bob Grover of Clan na Gael. There will also be a mass in observance of the 26th anniversary of what is called Bloody Sunday, the clash between Irish protestors and British Troops in Derry that rekindled a war that has only recently given way to a wary peace.
That same evening, there will be a Beef and Beer Benefit for the family of slain Philadelphia police officer Chuck Cassidy–a long-time AOHer–at the National Guard Armory in northeast Philadelphia. For more information, contact the 35th District at 215-685-2854. Tickets are $25.
As always, see our calendar for more details and maps.
