Community celebrates annual tradition
Spanish teacher Mary Bicanic leads the high school Spanish classes in singing “El Burrito Sabanero” while juniors Darrean Loy, Kiki Apple and Delaney Tobin play the instruments. The majority of the high school students take Spanish as a foreign language class.
December 15, 2017
WEB EXCLUSIVE Convent & Stuart Hall celebrated the nearly century-old tradition Noëls in the Herbert Center with songs sung in four different languages — Latin, French, Spanish and Mandarin.
Students, faculty, staff and parents were invited to take part in the tradition, while those who were not able to attend could watch the live stream.
“By now I have grown really fond of the senior girls’ Noël because I’ve been part of helping the girls learn to sing it,” theology teacher Kathryn McMichael said. “It comes back to me so quickly, and I always love hearing the harmonies and feeling proud of the girls.”
The seniors annually sing French song “Noël de Notre Dame.” The entire class performs together even if some girls have not taken French.
“The little kids were so adorable and they worked really hard on Noëls,” sophomore Abby Widjanarko said. “I liked the high school Mandarin classes’ [song] because they got to sing with the little kids and it showed elementary and high school inclusion.”
The Noëls celebration ended with the faculty and staff performing “Silent Night” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” for the students from the center of the gym.
“There is something really great about the fact that you can count on what the little ones are going to sing moving all the way through the senior girls singing their beautiful Noël,” McMichael said. “I think that’s part of what makes Noëls so precious.”
