The Norwich Christmas Pageant has been a revered community tradition since 1961 when Betty Booth imagined this lovely event and went to work to make it happen. Since then, each year the high school seniors from Norwich are invited to recreate this beautiful live re-enactment of the nativity story in a processional down Main St., complete with donkey, sheep and oxen, and even one of our newest Norwichians as the babe, surrounded by the townspeople singing carols between each scene. This time honored town tradition is something all of Norwich looks forward to each year, and the students, from the time they were young children, witnessing the spectacle with wonder and expectation, excited for the day when it would be their turn to be an angel or shepherd.
This year has certainly been different for us all. However, we did not want the Pageant to be part of things gone by, and are very excited to bring you our 2020 version of this glorious tradition. Below you will find a link to a video of the 2020 Norwich Christmas Pageant. This year that takes shape in the form of a video created with photos from Pageants past, combined with recordings from our traditional narrators, current high school seniors from Norwich, and beautiful carols from The Footnotes of Hanover High School. We are so very grateful to those in our community who stepped in to help create this re-invented Pageant. Namely, Sarah Rooker from The Norwich Historical Society, who created the audio podcast from recordings, Tracey Koehler who created the video from photos of Pageants past, Lisa Christie who was able to find students to safely record the parts and Jennifer Chambers the musical director at Hanover High who graciously arranged for the Footnotes to record the carols. We are also very grateful to the Wallis, Lawe, Van Arman, Griggs, Livingston, Ashley and Goodrich families for lending their effort and voices year after year. Once again it took a village to make the Pageant happen, and although it is of a different sort this year, it is every bit as meaningful.
In a year when so much has been sacrificed, it feels wonderful to continue to bring the Pageant to the community as one tradition we can still enjoy. We may not be together on Main St. at the Pageant this year, but we can all still be together, while apart, at 7pm on Thursday, December 17th, in our homes and have the Pageant come to us. Please enjoy this beautiful tradition at home with your family this year, knowing that we are watching together it and experiencing the joy of the season together. ....and if you listen very hard, you just may hear the bells chiming at 7pm.
There is a beautiful book created by Marty James, that explains the origination and history of The Norwich Christmas Pageant. It contains the script, the carols, photographs and images of paintings from the Pageant, it would be wonderful to have to follow along with and, of course, it is for sale at Dan & Whits. The James family has generously arranged for the proceeds from the book to support the continuation of the Pageant in perpetuity.
This year instead of leaving gifts at the manger, please drop gifts of non-perishable food into the 19 Days of Norwich collection boxes placed throughout town.
Thank you to all who went above and beyond to bring this reinvented 2020 Norwich Christmas Pageant to us all.