This is one of Mitchell's Nursery's newest breeds.

In fact, it's so new to the market, they haven't even named it yet.

Now there's a very old holiday tradition that dates back to the Middle Ages.

In fact, it may be the oldest Christmas tradition in the world.

It's called the Boar's Head and Yule Log Festival.

And producer Seraphim Smith takes us to his hometown, Kinston, to show us how they celebrate it.

[stately trumpet music] [footsteps click on ground] - [Seraphim] What happens when you take a Renaissance fair and marry it to a Christmas pageant?

You get the Boar's Head Festival.

But what's this festival about?

- Medieval Christian festival, celebrating the evil boar being slain and the light of Christ going out into the world.

- And it said that a scholar, representing knowledge and light and learning, shoved a book down the throat of the boar, thus killing it.

- [Seraphim] The student then beheaded the boar and presented the capital trophy to the Queen's College at Oxford.

A feast was organized there around the heroic event in 1340 and has been celebrated at several colleges, churches and manors ever since.

- Number one, the costumes.

I think they're awesome.

- I love it.

The pageantry, it's beautiful.

- Beefeater guards, live animals, llamas, donkeys, all sorts of things for you to come and see and enjoy.

[festive music] - And I also like it because there's so many people in it of all different races and stuff like that.

And it's so good because we all come for one person, the birth of Jesus Christ.

- [Seraphim] As if animals walking down the aisle weren't intriguing enough, when I found out that this normal looking church actually had a costume shop upstairs, I knew I would have to check it out.

- Look at that.

- [Seraphim] Marion, How many costumes over the years?

- What, you mean in these two rooms?

Probably 200.

It's like a magician's box opening up, you know.

It's fun.

It's just fun.

[stately organ music] - I love it.

I absolutely love it and I love the dancing.

It's marvelous and the singing.

It's awesome.

[stately music] - The Boar's Head Festival is amazing.

One of the things that I love about the story itself and the pageant is that it takes place in a community.

And so you have all walks of life, people who have been through maybe the easiest part of life, and people who have gone through maybe the hardest seasons of life and they come together from whatever their lives have been holding and whatever they're going through, at first to celebrate basically a pig picking.

We in eastern North Carolina really understand that.

But then as we gather, there's conversation about evil being defeated and there's a really powerful moment of the pageant where the conversation of the pageant changes from secular wintertime songs to the birth of Jesus, the defeat of evil.

[celebratory organ music] - If you're around and you're in the neighborhood of St. Mary's, please come.

We'd love to see you.

- [Seraphim] Christmas is the season of joy, wonder and awe.

Hey, I just had an epiphany.

You could come join the festival, too.

So, dust off your Renaissance fair costume and get thee to Kinston in January.

[festive music] - The Boar's Head and Yule Log Festival is at 3:00 PM and 5:00 PM on January 5th, 2025 at St. Mary's Episcopal Church at 800 Rountree Street in Kinston.

For more information, visit their website at stmarykinston.com.