LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Christmas Eve in the Southland will be marked Tuesday by Masses and services and the 65th annual Los Angeles County Holiday Celebration, billed by organizers as Los Angeles’ largest free holiday celebration.
Archbishop José H. Gomez will celebrate an English-language Christmas Eve Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels at 10 p.m. which will be preceded by Christmas carols with cathedral’s choir at 9:30 p.m.
An English-language family Mass with the cathedral’s children’s choir will be celebrated at 4 p.m. and a Spanish-language Mass at 7 p.m., which will be preceded by Christmas carols sung in Spanish at 6:30 p.m.
The 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Masses and 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Christmas Carols performance will be streamed on the cathedral’s YouTube page, youtube.com/olacathedral, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lacatholics and broadcast on digital Channel 7.2, which is carried on Channel 1246 on Spectrum cable systems.
Gomez will also celebrate the 12:30 p.m. Christmas Day Mass in Spanish. English-language Christmas Day Masses will be celebrated at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. The 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Masses will be streamed on the youtube.com/olacathedral and www.facebook.com/lacatholics and broadcast on digital Channel 7.2.
As is tradition, Gomez will also celebrate Christmas Day Mass at 9 a.m. for general population prisoners at the Men’s Central Jail Chapel.
“Jesus is our hope, as we remember in this holy season of Christmas,” Gomez said. “God is with us. This is the beautiful truth that we celebrate in this season. In God’s plan of love, he entered into our history, he came to share in our human experience.
“We hope in the promises of Jesus, who was born for us and died for us, and having risen from the dead now walks with us, as our friend and our leader. This is our hope. And this is the hope that we are called to bring to our world.”
The holiday celebration featuring performances by 28 music, dance and vocal ensembles will run from 3-6 p.m. at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Advance reservations are fully booked, but there will be a standby line for those without a reservation with guests accommodated on a first-come, first- served basis as space allows.
The celebration will be televised live by KOCE-TV Channel 50 and streamed on its website, pbssocal.org and on the PBS app.
A new producing team led by executive producer Lindha Narvaez has added new artistic genres, such as a circus act and a marionette performance, to the celebration.
Former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Melissa Villaseñor will be the host.
Groups set to perform from 3-4 p.m. include:
— Gabrielito y La Verdad, a Latin music ensemble led by Grammy winning singer-songwriter Gabriel Gonzalez whose repertoire spans the scope of Latin American route music including salsa funk, cha-cha, boogaloo and cumbia;
— Martha L.Z. Pamintuan and the Long Beach City College Etude Dance Ensemble, performing contemporary cultural and ethnic dance;
— the MUSYCA Children’s Choir, which performed during Super Bowl LIV halftime show in 2020;
— the String Revolution guitar band;
— Korean Dance Academy;
— Las Colibrí, the Grammy-winning all-woman mariachi ensemble;
— Citrus College’s the Citrus Singers, a 40-member a capella choral ensemble which performs with handbells; and
— Victory Praise Dancers, which bills themselves as a community-based dance ministry, comprised of youth who express themselves through movement.
Groups set to perform from 4-5 p.m. include:
— Christian Fellowship Chorale, a non-denominational gospel choir;
— Ballet Folklórico de Esperanza, a Mexico folk dance ensemble from Esperanza College Prep in East Los Angeles;
— The Bob Baker Marionette Theater, the nation’s longest continuously operating puppet theater;
— Ladyhosen, a four-piece band blending accordion, tuba and drums to create a polka music, including yodeling;
— Anji Tan & Friends, a Filipino jazz band;
— Reverb Tap Company, a tap dance ensemble which combines dance and film;
— Bloco Obini, an all-women ensemble rooted in Afro-Brazilian bloco- style drumming;
— the Urban Voices Project, a choir of men and women who are or have been homeless; and
— Andre Cruz, a soul singer who will perform with the soul/R&B band The Silvertone.
Groups set to perform from 5-6 p.m. include:
— Le PeTiT CiRqUe, a youth cirque company which performs aerial arts, contortion, martial arts and music;
— Joya Kazi Unlimited, a Bollywood dance company;
— Halau Hula Keali’i o Nalani, a hula dance company;
— Straight Up Abilities, a dance team consisting of performers with disabilities;
— The Palmdale High School Chamber Singers, an a cappella choir ensemble, and the Antelope Valley-based choral group The Sunday Night Singers;
— Yaya Dance Academy Elite Competition Team, whose academy seeks to help its American-born Chinese students connect with their cultural roots and identity;
— Mariachi Lindas Mexicanas, an all-woman mariachi band;
— The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles will sing upbeat holiday songs. This is the 34th consecutive year it has performed at the celebration;
— Masanga Marimba, a marimba band which performs traditional and popular music from Africa and Latin America; and
— Makina Loca, a band fronted by Ricardo Lemvo, who sings in Spanish, Portuguese, Lingala and Kikongo blending Afro-Cuban rhythms with pan- African styles like soukous, kizomba and semba.
More information on the celebration is available on its website, HolidayCelebration.org.
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