Wooster Square got in the holiday spirit, dunking old-fashioned donuts in warm cider, exchanging warm wishes, and wassailing — ye olde English word for caroling — with the help of the New Haven Oratorio Choir.
Allan Appel Photo
Father Schmitz, Chapman, and Webster with the sweets.
Fourteen members of the musical group, in fine wassailing harmony, were the centerpiece Friday night of the Historic Wooster Square Association (HWSA)‘s tree lighting and holiday party. The event drew 50 members and friends to historic St. Michael’s Church on the east side of the square.
It was the seventh annual tree lighting and party, which began with the city’s planting of a Douglas fir tree between the historic park’s World War II memorial and the Columbus statue, said HWSA’s president, Elsie Chapman.
The tree is now on a parks department timer, twinkling at 6 each night.
The first years the revelers showed up with a boom box and tapes, decorated the tree, and sang songs while they shivered in the cold, she recalled.
“I stood out there some nights with my feet freezing,” said Charlie Murphy.
Tenors Paul DiMauro, Jerry Boryca, and Richard Highfield
So this year, and last, the event was brought indoors to St. Michael’s. The church’s new priest, Father Gerard Schmitz, greeted neighbors and swapped old New Haven stories about how he grew up on Grafton Street and used to be the paperboy for the New Haven Register in his childhood Fair Haven neighborhood.
“Remind me to tell you about having a beer at the Old Barge,” he said.
But before he could get that story rolling, he was called to the front of the church to extend formal greetings, lead the assembly in a prayer, and introduce one of the main organizers of the event, Peter Webster.
Webster’s remarks, like the choir’s three-part arrangements, highlighted the harmony in the neighborhood this year after some concern had been expressed when the city’s New Light High School (formerly the Dixwell New Light High School) moved into the old Polly McCabe school building down the block from the church on Wooster Place.
Luis Cardona, history teacher Paul Camarco, Shane Stephenson, Conaway, and art teacher Pavano.
The school, which is home to approximately 50 kids coping with behavior and other problems, is still “a work in progress,” said Larry Conaway, the principal, who was in attendance with history teacher Paul Camarco, art teacher Michael Pavanno, and a handful of their kids.
During the 2015 Cherry Blossom Festival, which HWSA organizes every April, the New Light kids and staff provided hours of volunteered time setting up and taking down, said Webster.
“They thought we were going to bring problems, but we’re turning out to be good neighbors,” Conaway said.
And good artists.
One of the New Light kids, Raheem Forbes, was the creator of the poster for the event, which was displayed proudly (pictured) on the front door of St. Michael’s. He has transferred from New Light back into Wilbur Cross High School’s honors program, Webster reported.
HWSA’s Patrick Dunn and Rosemary Webster provided the cider and donuts.
Those interested in becoming involved in the Historic Wooster Square Association, which maintains the beauty of the park in addition to staging the Cherry Blossom Festival, can find more information here. On Tuesday the Orchard Street Shul’s Rabbi Mendi Hecht will preside over the Hanukkah menorah lighting ceremony in the square.
