Bishop Wester narrates inaugural Christkindlmarkt

Intermountain Catholic

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The Saint Vincent de Paul School choir (back, in robes) was featured at the Christkindlmarkt on Nov. 30.

SALT LAKE CITY — This is the Place Heritage Park transformed itself in the spirit of Christkindlmarkt, the famous German Christmas markets, during the last weekend of November.

The three-day event kicked off with a St. Martin’s Lantern Parade on Nov. 29, which was narrated by the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City.

"I agreed to do the evening because I saw it as a good way for people to prepare for the celebration of Christmas," said Bishop Wester, who wrote the narratives that explained the legend of Saint Martin of Tours, reflected the significance of light during the Christmas season, and discussed "Ode to Joy," one of the musical selections that was sung.

The Saint Vincent de Paul School choir was featured at the Christkindlmarkt, which had its debut this year. Other participating choirs were from Churchill Junior High and Cottonwood, Rosecrest, Dilworth, Highland Park and Edison elementary schools.

The St. Vincent de Paul choir, which is comprised for students in the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades, had six weeks to learn five different songs, most of which were in German, a language they hadn’t sung before, said Scott Larrabee, the choir director. "They picked that part up pretty good," he said, adding that the musical arrangements also allowed the 8th-graders to join the choir while playing orff instruments – glockenspiel, metallophones and xylophones.

St. Martin of Tours, who later became the Bishop of Tours, started out as a soldier during Roman times. One cold November day he encountered a beggar, "scantily clad and shivering in the snow," Bishop Wester said. "Since St. Martin had already given away the last of his coins, he got off his horse and cut his warm, woolen coat in half with his sword, giving one of the halves to the beggar. It has been reported that later in his journey, he met another beggar whose condition was much like the first. Without hesitation, St. Martin gave this beggar the other half of his cloak. Now himself shivering from the cold, he looked up to see the clouds parting to allow the intense sunlight to warm him. To this day, any unseasonably warm day in the late fall is called ‘St. Martin’s Summer.’" (The complete text that Bishop Wester gave is named "Bishop Wester's Christkindlmarkt narration.")

Such events "also deepen our appreciation for the traditions of different cultures and bring people together here in Utah, and help us to keep in mind the true meaning of Christmas," the bishop said.

Allyson Chard, who lived in Germany for two years, organized the Salt Lake Christkindlmarkt because she missed the experience, she said. "I think all of us at this time of year want to be in places that remind us of what the Christmas spirit is about," she said, and "I wanted to have children involved because children are Christmas."

For the Nov. 30 opening, children collected more than 1,000 coats that will be distributed to the needy through the Granite School Education Foundation and the Salt Lake District Foundation; during the other two nights children brought gently used shoes that were given to the Salt Lake Rescue Mission, Chard said. "As the organizer of this event, I really wanted to have, every single day, a focus on giving ... so children understand the value and importance of sharing with someone who doesn’t have as much as they do."

The inaugural Christkindlmarkt was a success, Chard said, adding that she plans for it to be an annual event.