Someone I knew on Facebook before I met her in person tagged me, and a couple of other people, with this photo, which came from who knows where. (I was going to say “Allah knows where,” but deferred.)
One of the things about the Christmas Eve service, pretty much in both my current church and the previous one, is that they are about the same, every year.
There’s music, interspersed with readings. The readings, particularly, the later ones, are pretty much as they were last year and the year before that.
(I occasionally wonder if people who only attend church on Christmas and Easter think that the church has a really limited repertoire.)
We light the candles during the singing of Silent Night as the room lights are dimmed. We are all illuminated by candlelight in a period of silence.
One could see this as boring, and predictable, yet I choose not to do so. It’s Christmas Eve again, and we wait in anticipation of what is going to happen.
***
O Holy Night, with Trombone Shorty.
Now THAT is a Xmas tree.
When I was still involved with church, I always preferred Christmas Eve service to Christmas Day. There was just something about it that was… more solemn. The outside darkness, the candlelight inside, that always seems like Christmas to me, the fact that there were fewer people there. Tonight, I’ll have the lights off, the Christmas tree lights and a candle on, and some soft music in the darkness. That’s my own little Christmas ritual every year, for myself.
I love the music you linked. “O Holy Night” is my favorite Christmas song, and I’d never heard this, but… wow, it’s just perfect. My apartment complex is quiet, almost empty, and it’s dark and wet out, and it’s all very silent in a way I take joy in.
Merry Christmas, Roger.