A lot of people (Christians anyway) could have been forgiven for being slightly stunned to hear, late in November, an announcer on Classic FM declare “Christmas begins on 1st December”, whereas, as the Vicar has pointed out, Christmas begins on Christmas Day. But of course, for much of society it doesn’t – Christmas decorations go up ever earlier in homes as well as streets. Which means that for just as many, Christmas finishes on Boxing Day (the first discarded trees appeared on our road on 29th). You might think, reading in his letter about the commemorations after Christmas that they’re right! Two martyrdoms and a slaughter hardly make for a Happy Christmas! But let’s stay with the old ways – the 12 days of Christmas building up to Epiphany, which is when most of us thankfully put away the decorations. There were traditions associated with the longer Christmas season lasting till 2nd February, Robert Herrick, writing in the 17th century, committed them to paper thus:
CEREMONY UPON CANDLEMAS EVE
Down with the rosemary, and so
Down with the bays and mistletoe ;
Down with the holly, ivy, all,
Wherewith ye dress’d the Christmas Hall:
That so the superstitious find
No one least branch there left behind:
For look, how many leaves there be
Neglected, there (maids, trust to me)
So many goblins you shall see.
Sounds a little like a good excuse to make sure the house was properly cleaned after the festive season!
Even more than New Year Christmas is a turning point – we “can’t fit it in before Christmas”, we say, and” we’ll do it after Christmas” – so many good intentions shelved till the festive season is over. If you like Christmas, that is. If you hate it I suspect you still grit your teeth and wait till it’s all over before getting on with your life.
But even if you, personally, found Christmas difficult, for whatever reason, there was much to give thanks for at the parish church: the cleaners and flower teams, not forgetting the tree and garland teams, the children’s angels (what a heavenly host adorned the crib!), the music (also heavenly), readers, sidesmen, Sunday school leaders and helpers, ‘givers’ because the collections at the Christmas services came to over £8,000 which will all go to charity, and of course our staff team who preached and printed, directed and coerced and generally made everything work.
There’s plenty to get us back into the swing in the parish this month. The Lunchtime events kick off on 8th with a concert and the 15th with a Literary Hour (it was considered unlikely that we’d get an audience, or indeed performers, on New Year’s Day so they follow each other only a week apart this month). If you’ve never been to one of these events why not give it a try in 2014 – you can bring your sandwiches, there’s coffee afterwards and no demands made on you except to sit back, relax and enjoy (and perhaps make a small donation to the performers (concerts) or fabric fund (literary hours).
There’s a Label Sunday on 12th. Some people cringe at the idea of wearing a label, preferring to remain anonymous, others who are fortunate enough to have a good memory don’t need reminding, but for most of us who like to know each other’s names it’s a great way of learning new ones and refreshing one’s memory of the people who you simply can’t ask because you’ve been meeting them at church forever and yet somehow….. so, even if you do hate the idea, humour the rest of us, come to coffee and wear your label!
The Friends of the Music have their AGM on 26th January. If you haven’t joined yet this is your chance, and you get to hear Paul Brough speak – Paul was our assistant organist some years ago and is now principal guest conductor of the BBC Singers and RAM Professor of Music. And at the very end of the month the Junior choir will be giving a small informal concert at 6.30pm on Thursday 31st.
Thinking ahead to Lent we’re planning another series of Stations of the Cross and welcome contributions from the congregation. Details are further on in this issue and you’ll see that we’re starting from scratch, offering all 14 stations for illustration.
January
Judy East