COVER STORY

Get in the Christmas Spirit at the Christkindl Market presented by Symphony in the Barn and the Friends of Glencolton Farm and Saugeen Academy.

The market returns after it had to be cancelled in 2020.

The first recorded Christkindlesmarkt was in 1298 where vendors sold food during the Advent season. By 1384 villages all over Germany were celebrating Advent in markets selling local foods and crafts. The Christkindlesmarkt was a festive meeting place for people to gather and purchase handcrafts such as nutcrackers, ornaments and cakes.

These changes created some regional differences in the celebration of Christmas within German-speaking countries, which is why many traditions today vary and sometimes overlap. These regional differences are also the reason that many traditional Christmas markets in Germany or Austria are called Weihnachtsmarkt, Christkindlesmarkt. Or Christkindlmarkt. In the end, however, each regional version is simply a Christmas Market.

Martin Luther played a major role in our current Christmas customs. He encouraged gift-giving traditions to be held on Christmas Day, which became a boon to all the markets, and suggested that children receive the gifts from “The Christ Child”, the Christkindl. Hence, the name Christkindlmarkt. St. Nicholas came on December 6th to fill children’s shoes with oranges, nuts and cookies while the Christ Child delivered presents on Christmas Day.

Glencolton Farms, home of Symphony in the Barn with a long tradition of connecting Culture with Agri-Culture is opening its gates again for this year’s magic of the Christkindl Market.

In today’s world of on-line shopping, virtual concerts, and Netflix-entertainment, the social life of community is suffering and the longing for human contact becomes a real necessity for many. Coming together without being confronted with today’s commercialisation of Christmas, without the pressure to rush and buy and eat has been a truly new experience for all those who come to the Christkindlmarket.

The sense of beauty, the smell of European food, the chestnuts roasting on open fires, eggnog, mulled wine, warm pretzels and music wherever you go.

The setting of the farm with all its animals and the little outdoor huts with vendors and Christmas lights everywhere create an unforgettable experience for the whole family. People from far and wide meet in cozy corners and glowing faces reflect happiness amongst the young and old.

Why in the country and not in the town???

Too many distractions cannot create the intimacy needed to enjoy this rare event. When you walk along the candle lit path slowly approaching the market place, it will fill

CHRISTKINDL MARKET AT GLENCOLTON FARM

presented by Symphony in the Barn and the Friends of Glencolton Farm and Saugeen Academy. . Stay tuned for our upcoming events. www.symphonyinthebarn.com

you with awe and anticipation. Craft vendors surround the market in their individual huts.

Like the other years, Handel’s Messiah in the Barn will not be happening because of covid restrictions. Instead, there will be the reading of the Christmas Carol by Diego Matamorus; one of the founders of the renowned Soulpepper Theater in Toronto.

This event has been the vision of the Glencolton farmers for many years and became reality when Edge Hill Country School volunteered and helped to pioneer this concept as a successful fundraiser for the school.

This time the Saugeen Academy in Hanover will be participating and volunteering to become the beneficiary of this event to create education programs with the focus on the arts, drama and music. The cut in the funding of arts education in the schools requires a new approach to provide this essential part of education. Arts in general define the cultural state of society and its heritage. This event highlights the importance of creating traditions and memories which nourish generations to come.

The market takes place Friday and Saturday December 10th and 11th from 4-9 pm.

Tickets: $15 in advance and $20 at the gate. Children are free.

For more information please go to www.christkindlfarm.com

The most interesting experience I had during my short-lived career as a stringer for The Hamilton Spectator in 1988 was a last-minute interview with British stage and film actor Richard Harris. Freelance meant being assigned the occasional film review for gems like “Amazon Women on the Moon”, attending concerts the music critic had no desire to see, doing interviews reporters might not have had time to prepare for and, occasionally, the opportunity to write an article about the rising theatre scene in the city.

I was given the Richard Harris interview at 3:30 on a weekday afternoon for 11:55 the next morning. Harris was to be performing his signature stage role as King Arthur in “Camelot” at Hamilton Place the following week. I was instructed to impersonate the reporter who had passed on the assignment when I called the Pittsburgh hotel where the actor was staying during his performances there. It was suggested that if I were to use my own name, the temperamental star might turn Prima Donna and slam down the phone in anger. I was to call ten minutes before the scheduled time, wait for Mr. Harris to come on the line, and see what bon mots I could induce from his lips during one of many interviews he would be subjected to that day. I had fifteen minutes with him.

It was the age before internet. First stop was the library, where I took out every book about Harris in the collection, including one written by his ex-wife, who had also been married to Rex Harrison, and who dedicated the memoir to “R.H.”. I read them one after another, looking for details from his life that might elicit an interesting response. I knew that if I didn’t find a way to engage him, the interview would suffer.

I phoned at precisely 11:45 and was put on hold. While I waited, I thought of all the ways people knew Richard Harris. He trained under the venerable Joan Plowright for the stage, was a hard drinking bad boy with his cronies Peter O’Toole and Richard Burton, and a prominent player in many great, and not so great, films. It was shortly before his memorable role in Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven” and many years before a new generation would come to know him in the role which would eclipse everything he had done before---- “Dumbledore” in the first two Harry Potter movies.

Mr. Harris came on the line at precisely 11:55. Somewhere in the memorabilia from my past lives is a recording of our conversation. Not having heard it in more than thirty years, my recollection of the interview will have to suffice. The first thing I asked him was whether it was true that in his youth he had a habit of impersonating a policeman and phoning his friends to let them know that Richard Harris was killed in a car accident to gauge their response. He admitted to this, describing himself as something of a warped practical joker. Some of this he attributed to the long period in his teens when he was bedridden with tuberculosis, which he also felt was directly responsible for his decision to become an actor. I told him that I had attended a performance of “Camelot” in Seattle in 1979 and I could recall a scene where King Arthur and Guinnevere were on stage. Beside them were a couple of maiden set-dressers, sewing a tapestry. During the scene Harris, who had discovered a hole in the knee of his tights and was twirling his finger around in it, turned to the two women and said, “I have a job for you later.” This broke up the theatre, as well as Guinnevere herself, who could not control her laughter. I asked the actor if that was Richard Harris or King Arthur speaking. He responded that it was both, that his training had taught him to use everything going on during a performance.

My 12:10 timeline came and went, followed by 12:20, then 12:30, then 12:40. Finally at 12:45, Mr. Harris said he had enjoyed chatting, but he really had to go. There were now quite a few interviewers lined up to speak to him. We said our goodbyes, and I learned the valuable lesson of disarming a subject during an opening, the same way, I suppose, one should do to a reader.

KEVIN ARTHUR LAND

Kevin Arthur Land is a playwright, screenwriter, arts educator, and the owner of Speaking Volumes Books and Audio in Flesherton.

SPEAKING VOLUMES BOOKS & AUDIO 12 Toronto Road, Flesherton kevinarthurland@gmail.com kevinarthurland.ca

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