Pinvestigation: Candlelight Processional

This week of Christmas GDP will be doing Pinvestigations on popular Holiday events or exhibits at the Disney parks. Today we Pinvestigate the Candlelight Processional.

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The Candlelight Processional has a very simple history and has really only been changed once.

The Processional was started in Disneyland when it opened in 1955, but under another “title”. It was originally just a Choir Festival performed in Adventureland in a gazebo near the Jungle Cruise. In 1957, the first Candlelight Processional was held, but it just consisted of school choirs and Disney employees “processing” down Main Street as they followed the parade.

The procession was held for a few years, then in 1961 a narrator was added to the Candlelight Processional to help the story along. 

With the opening of Magic Kingdom in 1971, came along with the Candlelight Processional, performed in the same manner as in Disneyland, it wasn’t until 1994, that the Candlelight Processional was moved to Epcot’s American Gardens Theater and it was made more of an event and such.

Since then the event has become a yearly tradition and many people look forward to it. Unlike Disneyland’s that is only shown one weekend in December, Epcot’s is ran everyday through December. Both are very popular in Disneyland you have to get tickets on Main Street for the show, and in Epcot, the BEST way to guarantee a seat for the show is to do the Candlelight Processional Dinner Package. If not you will have to wait in a LONG line to see the and you aren’t even guaranteed a seat. (I have seen someone line up AT 1:00pm for the 5:00pm show)

Here are a few pictures of the Disneyland version from last year and this year…    

  

Here are some pictures from the Candlelight Processional at Epcot…  

Both coast’s processionals feature both school, church and employee choirs. People have to audition for the Choir, and the Cast Members that are chosen to participate (which are very few compared to the number who auditioned, hold a coveted position that many CMs property wide would like to do. The show consists of the choirs singing Christmas songs and forming a giant human tree (see picture above) with yellow choirs on either side. While the narrator reads the Christmas story.

       

Pictures and Information from PinPics, Disney Pins, Mice Chat, and Mouse Planet.