Faith, Folklore, and Friends

Hub and I spent last week in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  We love going to the mountains in December, where we see old friends, all the festive lights, and sometimes snow.  It was a good week. One of the highlights of the week was attending the Festival of Christmas Past at the Sugarlands Visitor Center.  We have attended this event several times, and we are never disappointed. The Visitor's Center was beautifully decorated with natural wreaths. With the exception of the red bow, everything in the wreaths came out of the woods. They had a workshop with raw materials where visitors could make their own wreaths using cedar, pine, holly, ivy, sumac, mistletoe, ferns, and other things.   Outside, rangers and volunteers talked about how toys were made and the rituals that were common to the area in the 1800s.  Inside, there was singing, storytelling, and music all day long. Boogertown Gap Band plays and sings Pre-Civil War m...

  On Saturday, December 14th, we attended the 38th annual Festival of Christmas Past celebration at the Sugarlands Visitor Center in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. This celebration highlights the Christmas culture in Appalachia.    Around Christmas time, people gathered in churches, homes, and schools and many of them celebrated the holiday through music, storytelling, and crafts. Festival of Christmas Past allows us to pause and remember some of these traditions. ~  Kent Cave, North District Resource Education Supervisor.   There was plenty of old-time music, including a group of Scared Harp and shape-note singers. The Christmas trees decorating the building used all handmade ornaments.  There were demonstrations of weaving, rug making, and quilting on the inside.  It was a cold, rainy day, but they managed to make apple butter and apple cider outside.   We enjoyed all the music and storytelling. ...