The awws and awe of Christmas
I’m feeling a little sappy this week. It’s late November, cold weather has arrived with a vengeance, and we’re a little more than a month from Christmas. We’re actually less than two weeks away from the annual Rome Christmas Parade.
I don’t know how many years that I have climbed scaffolding at the corner of Broad Street and Fifth Avenue to help commentate on the parade, but it has always amazed me to look down Broad Street from an elevated position and see the crowd lining both Broad Street and the median to watch the parade go by.
I came to Rome in the spring of 1984 and I’ve heard just about every year since then that the parade brought close to 20,000 people into downtown Rome. The newsman in me has always been a little skeptical about that because 20,000 represents more than 20% of the population of the county.
Last year I got a different view of the parade after being selected to serve as Grand Marshal. It is an honor that cannot be matched in my life and one that I will carry to my grave, or wherever my remains shall be scattered.
It was not a case of sitting atop the scaffolding and watching the parade roll by. It was rolling with the parade, from East First Avenue all the way up to the Synovus bank. The crowd that I could see from the scaffolding at Fifth and Broad was multiplied by the 100, 200 and 300 blocks of Broad Street, plus the 500 and 600 blocks that I could never see from the scaffolding.
Twenty thousand seemed like a much more realistic figure. When trying to leave downtown Rome after the parade, that 20,000 seemed even more plausible.
I write this next paragraph very specifically to the individual who will serve as Grand Marshal this year and all future Grand Marshals. Enjoy the moment, let the smiles on the faces of children soak in. The world today is filled with so much anger, hatred and violence (that’s all the national media ever wants to report). Let happiness and smiles soak in; you’ll spend the rest of the night in tears of joy.
I will never forget the smile and giggles of Cave Spring’s little Addie Bell as I rode by last year. Her mom and my stepdaughter attended high school together and I’ve known little Addie since she was born. She pointed at me and waved and I just wanted to break into tears right then, but that was the 100 block and I didn’t want to be crying the rest of the way up the parade route.
By the way, the Grand Marshal will be announced during a breakfast at Coosa Country
Club on Tuesday morning. The marshal will bring a lot of smiles to a lot of faces.
Tears of joy would be kind of appropriate this year since the theme for the Nov. 29 parade (Dec. 1 is the rain date) is The Joys of Christmas.
As of this writing, 121 units are entered into the parade. The inevitable late entries are likely to swell the parade to the largest in history. Units will be lined up along East First Avenue all the way back to Central Plaza, across Second Avenue onto Glenn Milner Boulevard as far back as the Rome News-Tribune offices.
I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be a little chilly up on that scaffolding this year. Christmas this year is also taking on a little different twist for me because I was able to visit Bethlehem in June during a trip with a couple of dozen old and new friends.
Some of you will remember that Christians celebrate Christmas as the approximate time of Jesus’ birth. Late December has been debated through the years and it doesn’t really matter what the precise date was on the calendar.
What I learned is that the story of Mary and Jesus in a stable is likely a little different in reality. The manger was more than likely in a cave. There are caves all over the Judean countryside. The Church of the Nativity is believed to be the oldest surviving church in the Christian world. It was built over a series of natural caves. The Grotto of the Nativity is found directly beneath the altar. The spot where it is believed that Jesus was born is marked with a 14-point silver star placed by Franciscans during the 19th century.
The significance of the 14-point star is to make note of the 14 generations between Abraham and David, 14 generations between David and the exile, and 14 generations to the birth of Jesus. There is an engraving around the inner circle of the star that reads, “Hic De Virgine Maria Jesus Christus Natus Est,” which translates to “Here Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary.”
There is almost always a parade of tourists who scramble across Manger Square and crawl through the tiny entrance to the Church of the Nativity on a daily basis. It was an awe-inspiring moment to be included among the throng in that parade back in June, but I’m not sure that it was any more awesome than riding down Broad Street a year ago.