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December 22, 2009
Advent thoughts, part 2
I've just read Simon's Christmas piece for the Daily Mail - how lucky they are to have him writing for them! (Not quite sure if they quite deserve that but that's quite a separate issue best left in parenthesis here..)
Advent is exhausting. All those parties throughout December. The more of them you're invited to, the more popular, desired and successful as a human being you are; obviously! By the time you actually get to Christmas, the event is often one huge anticlimax, and the sight of discarded trees on Boxing Day dispiriting.
In a Catholic culture, where I was born and grew up, Advent is a time of moderate fasting and restricted entertainment (definitely no dancing!). Traditionally it is a time of penitence, a season akin to Lent.
Christmas starts on Christmas Eve with decorating the tree and the Vigil Supper (where our friend Carp - fish, not Augustus- makes a guest appearance, and about which next time). It's the beginning of the season of parties (Carnival) that lasts till the beginning of Lent, although Christmas itself ends with the Epiphany Day, after which the tree gets chucked out.
It makes more sense in every sense to me, but then of course ( being a Catholic, culturally speaking), I might be biased.
Having said all that, I went to a fabulous Christmas party on Sunday.
My friend Luke who plays a mean piano, and his mates on drums, bass and saxophone, form Cheesy Christmas Classics band every year. Mulled wine is in abundance, children are welcome, dress code cardigans and slippers, and a roomful of people of all ages and singing abilities are invited to sing together jazzed-up versions of White Christmas, Santa Claus is coming to town etc.etc.
It's always a very happy occasion and so it was this year. I could feel endorphins (feel-good chemicals) singing in my bloodstream for hours afterwords.
Or perhaps it was the mulled wine..
Posted by Marzena at December 22, 2009 09:39 PM