Jo Carter is shown on piano with many of the vocalists during a recent rehearsal for the Candlelight Processional show. (Submitted photo/Paul Sayers) 

By Angela Brown

Holiday tradition

Candlelight Processional brings area’s best singers, musicians together for holiday tradition

Oct 28, 2019 | 2:09 PM

Many vocalists and musicians from around the Battlefords will light up the Dekker Centre this year with their upcoming performance of The Candlelight Processional.

A holiday tradition, the show features music and narration celebrating the story of the birth of Jesus.

Now its fourth year in the Battlefords, the show will play at the Dekker Centre Nov. 23 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 24 at 2 p.m.

Paul and Pauline Sayers and Peg Gilchrist are organizing the event, which is being directed by Stephen and Jo Carter.

Net proceeds will benefit the Canadian Mental Health Association Battlefords branch. The event has raised thousands of dollars for local non-profit organizations in the community since it started.

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Paul said many singers from various churches and other groups “who like to sing, and want to sing and believe in the programme,” are thrilled to come out and share their voices for the upcoming performances.

Participants in the Candlelight Processional from a prior year’s performance. (Submitted photo/Paul Sayers)

Paul said the prologue of the show will include a narration telling how Jesus’ birth was predestined.

“We’re going to talk about the prophecy that was put in motion 600 years prior to the birth of Jesus,” he said.

The Battlefords performance of Candlelight Processional is based on the popular Disney production.

Paul said he visited with one of the senior executives in Walt Disney World a number of years ago when he first thought of trying to adapt the Disney show to help create a similar production in the Battlefords.

The show has been a success since it started here in 2016.

A choir of about 60 people from the Battlefords, Meota, Wilkie and surrounding area will take part, and have been practising each Wednesday at the North Battleford Comprehensive High School.

Some of the participants are also members of a number of area choirs such as the Gallery Singers, the Battlefords Blend Harmony Chorus as well as the Meota Men’s Choir and the Meota church choir.

The event which runs for just under two hours will also include a number of musicians from around the area.

Paul said the Candlelight Processional will help people rediscover what the Christmas season is all about.

“We dub it as the go-to pre-Christmas programme,” he said, adding he hopes the show helps people enjoy “the real, true meaning of Christmas, which is the birth of Jesus.”

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow