Video & Photos: “Flash Mob” Chorus at Mall

Bringing the joy of Advent and the promise of Christmas into the marketplace, more than 100 Thomas Aquinas College students descended on Ventura’s Pacific View Mall on Saturday for a choral “flash mob.”

After stealthily gathering around the mall’s Christmas central lobby — by the Santa Claus photo center and a Nativity display — the students simultaneously burst into song. They began with “Joy to the World” and “Silent Night,” and then concluded with “O Holy Night.” The mall’s surprised customers and employees seemed to delight in the performance, stopping whatever they were doing to take in the music, to sing along, and to cheer wildly afterward.

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!