Holiday Programs 2001

What is Chanukah?
What is the history behind the food, the games, and the gifts of Chanukah, and what is this "Festival of Lights" observance really about?

WHYY's Robin Bloom hosts What Is Chanukah?, an hour-long special that explores these questions. Scholars, chefs, and children share their views on the religious holiday. Music, historic readings, and personal anecdotes help expand the story.

Guests include Rabbi Lawrence Kushner and Karen Kushner, Larry Kane, and others.

Click here to visit the What is Chanukah page
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The Golden Dreydl: A Klezmer Nutcracker
Public radio personality Ellen Kushner and the popular Shirim Klezmer Orchestra in a fresh retelling of an old story.

Sara is a little girl with a problem: she hates the annual family Chanukah party! A mysterious party guest gives her a golden Dreydl, a traditional Chanukah toy. This Dreydl, however, is under a powerful spell, and it catapults Sara into a magical world of demons and fools, sorcerers and sages.
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A Great Miracle Happened There
A riveting conversation between host Larry Josephson and Rabbi Ismar Schorsch about the history, rituals, and meaning of Hanukkah and its importance in our time.
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Christmas with Jessye Norman and the Harlem Girls Choir
At St. Bartholomew's Church in New York City, acclaimed mezzo-soprano Jessye Norman will present a special Christmas Concert with the Girls Choir of Harlem, the St. Bart's Choir, Boys and Girls Choirsters of St. Bart's, chamber orchestra, and organ.

The concert will feature traditional carols and spirituals. This special evening, instigated by Miss Norman, is a benefit for the "Families of Freedom" fund (chaired by former President Clinton and former Senator Bob Dole), providing for the education of the children of World Trade Center victims.

NPR, in association with WNYC, New York, will feed the concert live, and offer a minimum of two refeeds of the program: one on Christmas Eve. NPR's Fred Child will host the program. More information to come.
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One People, Many Stories
A wonderful array of Channukah stories from around the globe.

Actor Bill Pullman reads "The Christmas Menorahs," a story based on an incident that occurred in Billings. When vandals throw a rock into the home of a Jewish family, the whole community rallies to combat hate. Jews and non-Jews display Channukah menorahs in their windows as a show of solidarity against intolerance.

Doris Roberts (from TV's Everybody Loves Raymond) reads a heartwarming story from Egypt about a poor but brave mother whose kindness to a stranger brings happiness, hope, and joy to her children on Channukah. The stranger turns out to be none other than Elijah the Prophet, making his rounds to help the needy.

Comedian Elayne Boosler reads the charming classic tale, "Hershel and the Hannukah Goblins." When goblins threaten the lighting of the Channukah menorah, the bumbling Hershel outwits them and brings light to the fearful town.
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Paul Winter Consort Winter Solstice
Experience again the excitement and music of Paul Winter's gala 20th anniversary concert, recorded in New York's vast Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

Headlining this program is an appearance by world music percussionist Mickey Hart of The Grateful Dead. Other performers include the percussionist and vocalist Arto Tuncboyaciyan and the Paul Winter Consort. WNYC'S John Schaefer hosts.
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A Crazy College Christmas
George Stewart brings the best in odd, silly holiday songs.
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Celebrations in Latino Landscapes
With Steve Curwood and Special Guest Maria Hinojosa

In honor of the winter solstice and the holiday season, Living on Earth will celebrate with a special hour focusing on Latin America. Four storytellers and writers share personal and historic tales of celebration. Through their stories, listeners will hear the ways in which celebration and culture are intimately entwined with the natural landscape.

Our special guests are writers and storytellers with Latino heritage from around the U.S. Maria Hinojosa, host of Latino USA, is an award-winning journalist and the first CNN correspondent to report exclusively on urban affairs. She will be talking about a classic Mexican celebration, the Day of the Dead, during which families line the streets with marigold petals to guide the spirits who are believed to return to their families for this one day.

Elida Bonet, a storyteller born in Puerto Rico and raised in Panama, will be telling a story about the mango trees of her youth, the important role they played in her life growing up, and how they figured in her wedding celebration many years later.

Denise Chavez, author of the novel Loving Pedro Infante, published this year by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, will read a personal account of her annual Christmas pilgrimage up a mountain in New Mexico.

Antonio Sacre, storyteller, actor and solo performance artist, has appeared at the Kennedy Center and other locations around the country. He will tell a story about the celebrations from his father's childhood in Cuba.
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Christmas with the Philadelphia Singers
David Hayes conducts the Philadelphia Singers in its 15th annual Christmas concert.

This year's performance, Christmas with the Philadelphia Singers 2001, was recorded in the resonant, atmospheric setting of St. Clement's Church near Logan Square in Philadelphia. It celebrates the holiday with hymns, traditional carols, and music by Benjamin Britten, Morten Lauridsen, and Rimsky-Korsakov.

Visit Christmas with the Philadelphia Singers on the web.
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Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
Public radio audiences have thrilled to the annual broadcast of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols for over two decades, aired from historic King's College Chapel in Cambridge. The worship service is based on a liturgy created in 1918 by the then-new dean of King's College, 34-year-old Eric Milner-White.

Wanting to try something innovative, something that went beyond the Church of England's standard liturgy, he wove together scripture and song, called on readers of various ages from school and town, and created this truly magical progression that carries participants, congregants, and listeners from prophecy to fulfillment, from an Old Testament foretelling to a birthday celebration.

Each year, the audience in King's College Chapel and millions around the world await the moment when a child's voice begins the Christmas holiday with the lovely carol, "Once in Royal David's City." So begins one of the most celebrated services in Western Christianity.
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JazzSet's Toast of the Nation
Celebrate with "Toast of the Nation" from NPR's JazzSet this New Year's Eve. Ring in '02 from coast to coast, with high hopes and live music. Visit the Kennedy Center in Washington for Freddy Cole's before-midnight concert; the Village Vanguard in New York for its annual party with Michael White's Original Liberty Jazz Band of New Orleans; Pete Miller's Steakhouse in Evanston, Illinois, for a listen to guitarist Bobby Broom and his Quintet, featuring hot saxophonist Eric Alexander on tenor; and finally Yoshi's, to listen to the Afro-Cuban Jazz Masters super group led by young international star flutist Orlando Valle.

The "Toast" will work its way from east to west, from party to party, time zone to time zone, taking in each midnight celebration across the nation, staying for a final dance before setting off to the next venue. Special guests from jazz, the arts, and the NPR family will offer toasts to the future throughout the evening.

The very first NPR New Year's Eve broadcast came from the Cookery in New York in 1977. The list of artists who participated then (and since) comprise a veritable who's who of jazz. The tradition continues this year. Join "Toast of the Nation"!
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