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December 24, 2006
Midnight Mass
Went to midnight mass this evening. First time in years. I used to go in High School, with my parents. Jill would come along as well. We had a bit of a tradition. I’d go with her to the Methodist service near her house in West Grove then she would walk with me to the Catholic church in the center of West grove. We probably only did this three or four times but it felt like a real tradition.
Anyway, midnight mass in Singapore. Totally, completely the same as midnight mass in West Grove, PA. Cultural intangibles really do translate, from the weird yearly audio visual experiment (this year, the pastor opened the service by playing a fifteen minute outtake from some tinny 1950’s nativity movie but the speakers were iffy so we got at best every third phrase) to the part where we all mumbled through the same songs. It was indescribably great. Midnight mass is one of my favorite yearly occasions. Simchat Torah is the other. Both start at night. All really great prayer services start at night, after the hectic day has ended, at a point where everything from the outside seems formless and void. My parents lived in France before I was born. In the evenings, my mom used to march up a long hill and go to nocturnes at an abbey in Paris. I’ve forgotten the name of the abbey but I’ll ask her. Some of it stayed with me, I think, since I was busy gestating while she was climbing the hill.
Anyway, Merry Christmas, y’all.
L’Hayim!
Pointless Pontificatin | By jb | 10:17 AM