THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 7, 1995 TAG: 9512050133
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 17 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT McCASKEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
The tradition has gone on for several generations.
Norfolk native Sarah Massie remembers her father caroling in the streets along the Hague. Then it was Sarah's turn to sing in the Christmas season.
Today, Massie is sewing her daughter Katherine's red caroling robe, preparing for an annual event that began at Garrison Williams School in 1929.
``It all seems very much the same as when I was a little girl,'' said Massie, 38. ``My mom made my robes.''
At 5 p.m. on Dec. 14, some 140 students and faculty of the Williams School will celebrate the holidays with the old custom of street caroling. Modeled after traditional English caroling, students led by a trumpeter will don hooded red and green robes and sing their way down Fairfax Avenue to Mowbray Arch and into Christ and St. Luke's Episcopal Church.
``It really helps bring in the holiday feeling,'' said the church's rector, the Rev. James W.H. Sell. ``They're all in costume. It's a nice tradition.''
After a brief benediction by Associate Rector Win Lewis, the students will assemble in the choir stalls to sing and give Bible readings. Some will play hand chimes. Others will perform on the flute.
``I like the robes, and I like singing in front of all of these people,'' said Katherine, a fifth-grader. ``I think it's neat that my mom and her dad did the same thing.''
The show lasts about an hour. About 250 spectators, mostly family and friends, attend the event.
``The whole idea is that it's a service run by the children,'' said Bart Baldwin, Williams School's headmaster.
In the first procession, in 1929, about 40 robe-clad kids sang, carrying lanterns and pine boughs as the carolers of old.
But the early days left the carolers somewhat out in the cold. Students usually would culminate their performance along the chilly waters of the Hague's old Stoney Park. But in the late 1930s, on one particularly frigid December night, the rector of Christ and St. Luke's invited the carolers and their audience into the church to escape the weather. The practice has been followed ever since.
``We love being part of this, but it's really a school event,'' Sell said.
The Williams School is a private institution that was established in 1927 and has been at its present location, 419 Colonial Ave., since 1933. The school offers classes for students from kindergarten through eighth grade.
Although the caroling started when the school had a strong Episcopal connection, today the institution is non-sectarian, but with a Judeo-Christian philosophy, Baldwin said. Some students do not participate in the procession out of religious conviction. Others join in regardless of church affiliation.
Portsmouth resident Barbara Cooper is Jewish and was a Williams caroler as a child. Now, she has two daughters in the procession.
``It's a wonderful tradition,'' Cooper said. ``I look back on it and now seeing my daughters doing it really brings back memories. It is a time of reflection. It really has the Christmas spirit.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
These are some of the students who took part in last year's street
caroling and procession from Williams School, down Fairfax Avenue to
Mowbray Arch and into Christ and St. Luke's Episcopal Church.
by CNB