West End Holiday Celebrations

With the holiday season in full swing, it’s a special time to look at the history of the West End’s rich holiday and religious culture.

During and after the Immigrant Era, the West End was home to people of many different ethnicities, nationalities and religions who honored a variety of religious observances and cultural traditions. Throughout the first half 20th century many of these traditions were documented by the Boston Globe.

In 1926, librarian Fannie Goldstein decided to adorn part of the Boston Public Library’s West End Branch with an exhibit to honor Hanukkah. The library displays featured tables filled with books authored by or written about Jewish people and texts opened to prayers in English and Hebrew that are spoken while lighting the Menorah. One could find signs in both English and Yiddish surrounding the display encouraging visitors to give books as gifts that year along with pictures of Old Testament events, which served as reference for those unfamiliar with Hanukkah customs.

Passover marks another sacred holiday for Jewish communities around the world. Families gather in the early spring for traditional Seder dinners, which feature unleavened bread called matzoh. For three decades a group of Hasidic Jewish West Enders baked their own matzoh using traditional methods. Grand Rabbi Pincus Horowitz made matzoh from scratch at 87 Poplar Street using only a special stone and cement oven for the task. Aiding Rabbi Horowitz were several others who recited psalms while preparing the traditional crackers. Among them was Horowitz’s son, Grand Rabbi Levi Horowitz, who revived the tradition at his Dorchester congregation in 1945 after his father’s death.

Passover often coincides with one of the holiest days on the Christian calendar, Easter. The West End housed Christians from many different backgrounds who would fill the highly decorated sanctuaries of local churches for orderly and reverent services every year. News coverage from 1900 spotlighted masses across Boston that were arranged for Easter celebrations, including one at St. Joseph’s in the West End.

Fifty years after Christmas was legalized in Boston in the 1850’s, a Christmastime pedestrian race began. A yearly delight for the West End community, the Annual Senior House Walk was hosted by The West End House, was a fixture of the holiday season. In addition to the race, churches and charitable organizations across the neighborhood did their part to ensure that everyone had a happy holiday. An 1895 globe article lists some dozen Christmas parties, festivals, plays, and events across the neighborhood. West End churches also worked with Mass General to ensure that everyone was properly cared for over the holiday.

The West End Museum hopes the spirit of charity, love and joy shared in the old neighborhood are felt by all this holiday season as well.