Christ's nativity, flight into Egypt retold in starring and masking rituals
By Suzanna Bobo
Orthodox Christians on Kodiak Island celebrated the beginning of the New Year January 14 with the completion of a rigorous week of Christmas rituals including liturgies, feasting, starring (Slaaviq) and, in some places, a tradition known as masking.
In most Orthodox communities the revelry began and ended in church: with Divine Liturgy and festal vespers celebrated on Christmas Day (January 7) and a liturgy commemorating the circumcision of Christ the morning of January 14. Between these liturgical anchors, the faithful retold the stories of Christ's childhood as they visited one another's homes, feasting, singing and following a star.
The star, constructed with paper and ornaments on a background of wooden pegs and bearing a religious icon in the center, represents the celestial sign that drew attention to the birth of the Christ Child in historic times. The story is related in the Gospel According to St. Matthew, which tells of wise men (Gentiles) from the East who went to King Herod in Jerusalem inquiring about the King of the Jews whose birth was signaled to them by the star. According to the gospel, the wise men sought to worship Him whose birth was proclaimed; they eventually found the Holy Child in Bethlehem, led there by the star.
On Christmas night in contemporary Alaska the paper star is blessed and hymns sung in church, and the wise men are remembered in song: "Those who worshipped the stars were taught by a star to adore Him." A star boy twirls the star as this hymn and others are sung in Russian, English, Slavonic, Yupik, Alutiiq and other Alaskan native languages, depending on the community in which the event is being celebrated. When the church service is complete, the star boy leads the faithful from location to location, a re-enactment of the historic fact that many Gentiles were led to worship Christ as a result of the acknowledgement of His divinity by the wise men.
Breaking the fast:
The Orthodox faithful typically fast for forty days prior to the Nativity Feast. Matushka Veronica prepared a lavish feast to welcome the carolers who followed the star.
In Kodiak City the first stop this year was the rectory, the home of Fr. Innocent Dresdow, priest of Holy Resurrection Orthodox Cathedral, and his family. The star boy entered the home and waited, his back to the family's prayer corner. Guests filled the home, standing shoulder to shoulder in each available room, cramming the stairways and crowding the porch as the house filled beyond capacity. The faithful faced the candlelit prayer corner (even if they couldn't see it), and the star boy twirled the star. For 20 to 30 minutes, the hymns were sung, and the star twirled, sometimes in a clockwise direction, sometimes counter-clockwise depending on the hymn. When the singing was complete, Fr. Innocent welcomed the crowd. Matushka Veronica, his wife, invited each person to stay for a lavish feast that had been tempting even the most ascetic of those who had been squashed into corners in the dining room and kitchen.
It had been prearranged that the star would go from Fr. Innocent's house across the street to the Alutiiq Museum at 7:00 p.m., but the elders were ready to proceed early, so at 6:40, Fr. Innocent asked a young man in the crowd to carry the star, and the faithful donned coats and walked to the museum. With no prayer corner to anchor the ceremony, the star boy faced a wall adorned with an exhibit of hunters in Native dress. With the crowd behind him the star boy twirled the star and the cantors began singing the hymns again.
From the museum the star traveled from
house to house over the next several days, making stops at public places,
such as Providence Island Care Center. Each night the star began its
circuit late in the afternoon and traveled as long as the singers could
hold out. The next day, the travels began again.
In some villages, the faithful complete
starring within three days, a local custom grounded in the belief that
the starring must end and the masking begin within this period of time.
According to Sitka historian and priest Fr. Michael Oleksa, masking (masquerading) is a winter ritual preserved from pre-Christian times in only a few communities. Participants gather at a community hall dressed in elaborate disguises. Once gathered, the participants guess the identity of one another. Then, they proceed from house to house, where the residents, also, attempt to identify the person behind each frightful mask.
Spinning the star while carolers sing hymns.
While visiting Larson Bay, Fr. Innocent recorded Clyda Christensen's personal account of starring and masquerading in Karluk, where she lived as a child. According to Christensen, masking rituals traditionally followed this pattern: the participants, always men, wore new, elaborately-made white garments and animal masks; children were cloistered in a bedroom while the masqueraders visited their family home; and it was very important to complete the ceremony in each home by New Year's eve, which is the sixth and final day of the "after-feast" of the Nativity, according to the church calendar.
In the Orthodox communities where masking has been integrated into the Nativity festal season, it is understood as a re-enactment of the terrifying events that followed the visit by the wise men. According to Christian scripture, King Herod sought to destroy the Christ Child. Not certain of the Child's identity, Herod ordered the slaughter of all male children two years old and younger in Bethlehem and its districts, a total of approximately 14,000 children. It is believed that the executioners of these children carried out Herod's orders in disguise to avoid being recognized by their neighbors. In memory of the specter of this slaughter, children are "protected" behind closed doors in masking rituals today.
Of course, by the time Herod's horrible slaughter took place, the Holy Family had fled to Egypt where the Christ Child could be kept safe, and the children in Kodiak villages are in no real danger of harm from the masqueraders. Still, the masking ritual can be frightening to children and Outsiders not accustomed to it.
