I enjoy Christmas music. Not the jazzed-up, modernized stuff, but the traditional carols or instrumentals thereof that you might hear at midnight Mass.
Those who know me well might think it strange that I do. But I have my reasons, and you can bet that I'm here to share them with you.
The first is simply fond memories. I have so many of the late nap on Christmas Eve before we woke up to go to the 2330 Mass. My parents were in the church choir, you see, and they always sang these beautiful songs before Mass started at midnight. I love that choir, I loved sitting in the loft with them, listening to the beautiful music and longing for the day when I'd be old enough to sing with them. Now that I think about it, I could have been singing with them all along, after all I had been singing with the school chorus since I was quite young. Anyway, I did love listening to them throughout the year. (I did get to sing with some of them about a year ago, I blogged about it then, check the archives.) Dottie and Joe would sing O Holy Night, Barbara sang Mary's Boychild, and I just loved it when all the voices came together for Carol of the Bells. I think the Christmas program was special mostly because the Mass was at a special time.
I also love testaments of faith. I was near in tears when I went to Notre Dame five years ago. That people can love their gods so much to be willing to build a temple to them knowing full well they would not live to see it completed is an amazing thing to me. It's the same with music, though in a different sense. People are so strong in their faith that they create some truly beautiful sounds as a tribute to that faith. I think it is something to be honored. And when you hear someone performing it with the same amount of passion, even if the words are not a part of your faith, you can still be moved by them.
It's just one little part of the Human Condition.
PS: this is my 300th blog post! Woohoo!!
Oh no! - 31 Amigurumi in October Continued
5 years ago
2 comments :
Do you still go to those Christmas programs?
I haven't been to a church Christmas thing since I was 17, but this time of year I always find myself thinking about them and how they were some of my best memories as a kid.
Our church in Hawaii would do a Christmas pageant every year. One year I was an angel with my dad and the next year I was Mary. I was thrilled about that because the boy I had a crush on played Joseph. *wink*
Wait, a minute, I just remembered one I think I went to in Colorado. I had to be 18 or 19. Or there's always the performance of, "Joseph and the Amazing Colored Dreamcoat," but that doesn't really count does it?
Carol of the Bells is my absolute favorite. :-) thanks for the memories.
I do not still go to them. A few years ago, I did announce to my parents that I wanted to go to Midnight Mass at the church we used to go to, but I guess they stopped doing the nice program that I loved. I did play violin in the choir at my mother's new church, but haven't done that for a couple years either.
Carol of the Bells is my #1 favorite too!
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