TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Kwanzaa

Each year at Holy Angels, between Christmas and New Years Day, we hold a family celebration of African and African American cultural traditions known as Kwanzaa. Commemorating the 7 Principles of Unity, Self-Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Creativity, Purpose, and Faith, Holy Angels Parish members and friends enjoy inspiration, food, music, and fellowship as an added dimension of the Christmas season.

 
CHRISTMAS at HOLY ANGELS
2001~2002


Holy Angels Church in the Christmas Season
During Advent, the Church anticipates the birth of Christ, with special songs, symbols, and liturgy, including the Advent wreath. Unlike the secular world, the Church begins the Christmas season with the great feast of Christmas. Our special Nativity Scene, the Christmas trees, the Advent-now-Christmas wreath and a sea of poinsettias will help to keep the true spirit of Christmas alive during the weeks following the great feast itself.


The Altar

The advent wreath, a great circle of evergreen with 3 purple candles and one rose candle, dominates the area in front of the altar during Advent and the Christmas season. Lighting a central white candle on Christmas eve, symbolizing Christ, transforms the wreath into a Christmas symbol, celebrating the birth of the Messiah. Red and white poinsettias complete the festive scene, and are in abundance around the altar, nativity scene, and the windows of our church.


The Nativity Scene

Beginning at the family liturgy on Christmas Eve, Christmas trees surround a large nativity scene in African motif. The lights on the trees are turned on most dramatically after the opening of midnight mass in darkness, and the singing of our traditional songs, "I AM" and the "Gloria". Our pastor takes a personal hand in the recreation of the stable in a cave, dominated by figures of the Holy Family. Through the weeks from Christmas to the Epiphany, the nativity transforms itself with a procession of African figures, representing first shepherds, then the Magi, according to the scriptural accounts. It is not until Christmas that these symbols appear in the church, and we continue to enjoy them and to be inspired by their beauty until the second Sunday following Christmas itself.