Many parishes have a public celebration of the Epiphany. Only a handful, however, do so with a Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival: an elaborate pageant with woodsmen, pipers, King Wenceslaus, shepherds, the Three Magi (and of course, a boar’s head), all approaching the Star of Bethlehem, and overcoming darkness through the light of Christ.
It’s not a simple production. The cast numbers about 150, sometimes live animals are included, and they all need costumes. There are multiple choirs and organ improvisation, tied to the rapid cues of the storyline. But for the parishes that host it, the festival has become a beloved tradition not only for the parishioners but also for the broader community. “It’s a big exclamation point on that Christmas season,” said the Rev. Tim Schenck of the Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida, which began hosting its festival in 1978.
While it is entertainment, it’s also about spreading the gospel. “Most pageants end at the manger. All of this pageantry culminates in the recognition of who this child is—the light of the world. It’s the Epiphany star, it’s the triumph of Jesus Christ over sin and death,” Schneck said. “Everyone becomes part of the story—Christianity isn’t about watching from the sidelines.”
“It’s a way of evangelizing,” said Tony Manhollan, senior warden at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Youngstown, Ohio, which began hosting the festival in 1963. St. John’s sees it as a way to let people know about the church and its outreach, including a food pantry, because parishioners know the festival attracts people who would not be at Sunday worship (and sometimes, people who attend the festival do become parishioners).
It’s an all-hands-on-deck affair for the medium-sized congregation: it couldn’t happen without an immense number of volunteers. “It’s one of the many ways we build up faith in the community—we experience it together,” Manhollan said. He was raised in the parish and participated in the pageant as a child, and he enjoys seeing old photos of his parents in their costumes.
Schneck said one of his parishioners played the baby Jesus as an infant and is now an adult member of the cast.
“There’s something profoundly Christian about telling the same story again and again until it’s part of the parish bloodstream,” Schneck said. Parishioners are proud of their festival and that members of the community are eager to enjoy it, and that now generations of families have attended.
The reasons for this may differ from community to community. “People in Palm Beach like to dress up a bit,” Schneck said about the appeal of pageantry.
“Youngstown is a much different city than it was 60 years ago,” Manhollan said, adding that many older parishioners see the festival as a way to get those who have moved outside the city to come back, even if only for a night. “It’s just a really strong tradition,” he added.
The spectacle, of course, is part of the tradition. “It truly is a rich feast for the senses,” Schneck said. The boar’s head of his parish was captured by a parishioner in an earlier era, when Palm Beach still had wild boars.
For those who didn’t grow up with it, the pageant initially seemed pretty odd. Schneck wasn’t expecting to be asked about his skipping abilities during his interview for rector, but it is an essential skill, since the rector skips after the sprite.
“I had never even heard of the Boar’s Head Festival, which is true of most people,” said Stuart Forster, associate for music and liturgy, organist, and choirmaster at Bethesda-by-the-Sea. But while getting the cues right can be tricky, especially since it can be hard for him to see what’s happening from behind the organ, he loves the chance to improvise and do something different than the regular Sunday music.
And, of course, he loves the message. “The most moving part of the whole thing is the Holy Family, and the whole church kneels in adoration of the Holy Child, and there’s a moment of silence,” he said.
For Richard Konzen, the organist and choirmaster at St. John’s, the festival offered a chance to try something new: when he was being trained, improvisation wasn’t being taught in American organ programs. (He was thrown in the deep end: the Boar’s Head Festival was his first weekend of working at St. John’s). But he has also grown to love it, and has written several interludes for the church’s performance. “It’s something we all look forward to,” he said.
While it’s not something every church can support, both Forster and Konzen have had inquiries from visitors asking about the potential of doing it at their parish. Konzen lost his pipers to another parish that started its own Boar’s Head Festival. But it wasn’t hard for him to find replacements—local musicians are eager to play in it.
Its origins, like many Anglican traditions, lie in a misty medieval or perhaps early modern past amid Oxford’s dreaming spires (the Queens College origin legend involves a 14th-century porcine attack averted with a tome of Aristotle). But it began as a public celebration in the United States at the Episcopal Hoosac School in Hoosick, New York in 1892, introduced by its founder, the Rev. Edward Tibbets.
Dr. Tibbits’ family first held a Boar’s Head performance in their home in Hoosick on Christmas Eve 1866, which was borrowed from their relatives, the Bouton family of Troy. The Boutons were originally Huguenot refugees, and they may have encountered the tradition while stopping over in England, although that’s not entirely clear.
“When Dr. Tibbits established his choir school in 1889, he wanted to emphasize the importance of tradition, so in 1892, he introduced the pageant as an annual event at Hoosac School,” said Samantha Graves-Brownell, advancement associate at Hoosac School. In 1923, the school added a Yule candle to be lit in remembrance of the lives of earlier students and teachers.
When the Rev. Nelson Burroughs moved from his parish in nearby Troy, New York, to become dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati, he introduced the Boar’s Head Festival there. Parishioners of St. John’s in Youngstown, Ohio, discovered it at the cathedral. And then some visitors to St. John’s brought it back home to Palm Beach.
Greta Gaffin is a freelance writer based in Boston. She has a master of theological studies degree from Boston University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
