LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Christmas Eve in the Southland ill be marked today by Masses at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels and the 59th annual Los Angeles County Holiday Celebration at the Music Center's Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
A Christmas Eve family Mass will be celebrated at 4 p.m., a Spanish- language Mass at 7 p.m. and an English-language Mass at 9 p.m.
A midnight Mass early Tuesday will be preceded by Christmas carols by the cathedral's English-language choir at 11:30 p.m. Monday.
The midnight Mass will be livestreamed on the cathedral's Facebook page, facebook.com/olacathedral, and YouTube channel, youtube.com/olacathedral.
The holiday celebration will be held from 3-6 p.m. and feature 21 music, choral and dance ensembles with more than 500 performers. It is billed by organizers as the county's largest multicultural holiday celebration.
Highlights include performances by Infinite -- An Inclusive Dance Company, the nation's first professional wheelchair ballroom dance company; the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, the nation's largest majority African-American orchestra; The Daniel Ho Trio, Keali'i Ceballos and Halau Hula Keali'i o Nalani and the Arcadia High School Orchestra performing Ho's original songs in English and Hawaiian with hula choreography; and La Ballet Dembaya, a Los Angeles-based West African drum and dance company.
Other groups set to perform include Kayamanan Ng Lahi Philippine Folk Arts, a Filipino dance company; Lorenzo Johnson & Praizum, a choir performing upbeat, inspirational and positive hymns, including traditional, contemporary, hip-hop, rhythm and blues, Christian and gospel; Mariachi Divas de Cindy Shea, an all-female mariachi ensemble; the Pasadena Girls' Choir, which performs many styles of music including light jazz, pop, classical and show tunes, complete with staging and choreography; Paso de Oro Dance Company, which will perform a romantic holiday waltz set in a traditional Mexican home decorated for the holidays; and Tres Souls, a band performing songs of the 1940-60s Bolero style.
Admission and parking are free. Doors will open at 2:30 p.m. A line will begin forming at 9 a.m. along Hope Street on the west side of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Setting up chairs in line is prohibited.
The celebration will be televised live by KOCE-TV Channel 50 and streamed online at pbssocal.org. It will be rebroadcast at 9 p.m. tonight and at 3 a.m., 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. Tuesday and 11 a.m. Wednesday.
More information about the celebration, including complete program information, is available at MusicCenter.org/holidaycelebration, by calling (213) 972-3099 or by email at holidaycelebrationmusiccenter.org.
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