Usually, thousands attend and participate in El Museo del Barrio’s Three Kings Day Parade, wearing colorful capes, crowns, and costumes. This year, a virtual celebration took place without a parade — keeping festivities and traditions alive in people’s homes during one of the most joyous feast days of the season.
Local school superintendents have asked that Catholic school educators be included when city public school educators eventually become eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. This comes as vaccine distribution continues to be criticized for its slow rollout at the city and state levels.
Tourists usually come by busloads six weeks of the year to see Dyker Heights’s lavish Christmas lights and displays. Due to the overwhelming tourism he experienced last year though, homeowner Nick Taverniti didn’t elaborately decorate his home. This year, his daughters convinced him to keep their family tradition alive and bring much needed Christmas cheer to the area.
St. Saviour High School junior Allie Giordano wanted to do more for others as the pandemic continued to unfold during the holiday season. She asked for help from her school’s administration with a Christmas service project she wanted to pursue — collecting items for the military through the American Red Cross Holidays for Heroes program.
The thematic arc of “A Concert for Healing” allows viewers of this online performance to experience Christ’s power of redemption, said its organizers at St. Pancras Church, Glendale, Queens. It was videotaped and produced at the church to help its members mend from a tumultuous year for their parish.
New York City was covered in at least 10 inches of snow, as of mid-morning on Dec. 17, during its first snowfall of the season. While snow plows scraped the asphalt outside, Diocese of Brooklyn’s students were inside, learning remotely at home.
One of the best feelings ever, which many older students can attest to, is when it’s finally the end of the semester. After spending a semester studying and working hard to excel in academics and extracurriculars, they look forward to unwinding and celebrating with their classmates.
There’s nothing like seeing children’s eyes open wide when they spot wrapped gifts underneath a decorated Christmas tree. Their sprint to the tree reminds one of previous Christmas Day mornings when Santa did get your letter and brought you everything on your list. But being with family while opening up those gifts is really what it’s all about, especially at Hour Children.
Pope John XXIII once said, “Mankind is a great, an immense family … This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas.” The Christmas spirit will still be alive — albeit in modified ways, due to the pandemic — thanks to how Catholic parishes and dioceses will continue their annual programming.
The Test for Admission into Catholic High Schools (TACHS), which was administered online last month due to the pandemic, seemed to go off without a hitch. More than 10,000 eighth-graders from Catholic, public, and private schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn, the Archdiocese of New York, and the Diocese of Rockville Centre, took the exam this year.
