That’s why despite frosty temperatures, cold winds and pending snow, Toronto’s Holy Spirit Catholic School held its outdoor Nativity performance complete with live animals on Dec. 12.
“We are so focused on making a connection by visualizing,” said De Silva, the teacher who organized the performance. “By just reading the story it is not visual (but) when we play it and get them involved with acting they see the visuals. For the rest of their lives they are going to remember this even when it takes place in a church or even if they were to see it on TV, it is going to be a (reminder) of a very important event in their lives.”
The bulk of the cast for the Living Nativity performance were Grade 5 and Grade 6 students with a few Grade 8 students and alumni pitching in behind the scenes. The performance, which lasted about 25 minutes, began around 7 p.m. with an introduction from school principal Paddy Morgan before Mary, played by Alyssa Umali, made her way towards the manger, donkey in tow.
“I was actually very excited about the live animals,” said the Grade 6 student who performed with a llama, three goats and two sheep as well as the donkey. “When they told me there was going to be a donkey walking with us I thought we were going to be able to ride the donkey.”
That didn’t happen but still Umali said playing Mary helped give a deeper understanding of what it was like for the Virgin Mother and reinforced her understanding of the Christmas season.
“It helped me understand it a little bit more by playing her,” she said. “The Christmas season is more about giving than receiving. I’ve learned that almost every year.”
Making that deeper connection is exactly why Morgan wanted his school to perform the Nativity scene as the highlight of their Christmas concert which drew about 1,000 people inside the school that night. “They were performing the story of Christmas just to really reinforce at this time that God is with us,” said Morgan. “We are offering them an understanding of why this season is important. When we gather like this and we celebrate and we feature our students and we have them on stage singing, performing, dancing, I think it really brings home the message that we belong together.”