Liturgical Calendar Headspin
  • OlbashOlbash
    Posts: 314
    Played OF Vigil for Advent 2 last night.

    Accompanied Christmas pageant at Protestant Church this morning.

    Played EF Mass for Immaculate Conception this afternoon.

    Playing OF Mass for Advent 2 tonight.

    Playing OF Mass for Immaculate Conception tomorrow.
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    The life of a musician. At times, the only more confusing profession is a time traveler.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    And to think, they accuse us of having split personalities. Go figure... ;-)
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    time traveler

    This explains the bow ties.
    Thanked by 4Andrew Motyka CharlesW Ben Chris Allen
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    More Advent! More Christmas! More Immaculate Conception! Liturgical bounty.
  • Musicteacher56
    Posts: 621
    Lots of liturgical bounty, to be sure, but I have to agree that I'm beginning to feel like Sybil. Remember, too, those of us who are teachers. We have Christmas pageants and Living Nativities on tap in the next couple of weeks, too.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Yes, but at the end of it all ...

    Hodie Christus natus est:
    Hodie Salvator apparuit:
    Hodie in terra canunt Angeli,
    laetantur Archangeli
    Hodie exsultant justi, dicentes:
    Gloria in excelsis Deo.
    Alleluia.
    Thanked by 5Andrew Motyka Heath Andrew_Malton Kathy BruceL
  • Andrew Motyka
    Posts: 946
    Due to calendar/region oddities, a friend of mine entirely missed the Ascension a few years ago. He was in seminary in Baltimore, where it is celebrated on 7 Easter, but that Friday he flew home to Pennsylvania, where it was celebrated on the Thursday. Missed the feast entirely.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    We hear much about keeping Christ in Christmas -
    but it would be a spiritual bounty if we could get Christmas out of Advent!
    Thanked by 3ryand irishtenor ClergetKubisz
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: no carols in the Walgreens!

    (Until the actual 1st day. And by that point they're all gone anyway.)
  • Musicteacher56
    Posts: 621
    JMO--perhaps we should have that printed on a t-shirt. When I was a little girl our tree went up on Christmas Eve. Advent was a season, not a "suggestion". Even today, I see many nativity sets outside of Catholic Churches, but without the infant Jesus. Everything is so rushed and hurried. Advent is a time of spiritual preparation, not secular prep for a "holiday" instead of a "holy" day.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    I am in a parish that doesn't do anything Christmas related until the first mass on Christmas Eve. No Christmas carols, no decorations, no anything if it doesn't pertain to Advent. Sad to say, Advent has almost lost all penitential aspects in the west. I don't do anything that will encourage it as "Christmas lite."
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Advent is like Lent, in that I give something up every year.
    That something is singing Christmas Carols, which I do incessantly from Dec 24@noon until the Saturday after Christ the King.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    A Ukrainian priest I know was recently transferred - he has two parishes and a convent. One parish uses the New calendar the other the Old calendar. He had Pascha in one parish then drove five miles for Lent.
  • PaixGioiaAmorPaixGioiaAmor
    Posts: 1,473
    I don't disagree with everyone. But remember what it takes to sometimes live in the "real world."

    Example: in the real world, who is going to put up the nativity scene on DEC 24, in driving snow when the maintenance people have 100 other things to do, including making sure the walks are salted and mats are placed in the church to catch water off the boots of the thousands who will walk through the door in the next 24 hours?

    A lot of these things are just practical considerations.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    PGA,

    Could one start this project on the 4th Sunday of Advent?

    You're right, of course, that some aspects of preparation take longer than others. If we want beautiful polyphony, unless we are highly-skilled musicians, we can't start that late in Advent.

    God bless,

    Chris
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    The 'real world' is exactly what we make it to be! It is embroidered of our own choices and preferences, by which we consciously choose to regard or disregard the spiritual wisdom of the Church's kalendar. Shovelling snow, etc., is relatively unrelated to decking the halls, and unless Christmas is the day after Advent IV I don't comprehend what the problem could be. People who have parties, and childrens' pageants and school nativity programs in Advent do so simply because they don't want (or choose) to have them during Christmastide where they belong. It should be literally unthinkable for Christians (and especially Catholics and other liturgical churches) to have Christmas stuff during advent. This is rather like having Easter pageants and singing Easter hymns, and having Easter parties during Lent, i.e., unthinkable. One is supposed to be immersed heart, mind, body and soul in Advent until Christmas dawns. (And, while you are shovelling snow, heave some of it down here in Houston!)
    Thanked by 5CHGiffen ryand Adam Wood Spriggo tomjaw
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Jackson,

    What would Houstonauts do with snow? (As a native of Buffalo, New York, I can think of many uses for snow, and many activities to perform, but in Houston?!)

    God bless,

    Chris
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    The 'real world' is exactly what we make it to be!

    Hear, hear!

    Unless you live in Venezuela, no one dictates that Christmas has to begin early.
    People make choices.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    CGZ -
    This (entirely nominal and reluctant) Houstonian (who was born in Missouri where it snows, and has never forgotten) would, if it snowed here, literally go out and wallow in the wondrous invigourating substance with unmitigated glee. Please, all of you who are blessed with real winters throw a snowball for me. Actually, it snows here (usually very lightly) about once every ten or twelve years. Last year we got enough snow to stay on the ground for about thirty minutes. It has been at least thirty years since it snowed (twice in a winter!) here heavily enough to stay on the ground for (a mere) three or four days. Around 1907 or so it snowed two feet here. Houston hasn't been so blessed since then. Houston is really pitiful: if it snows even half an inch here the schools are closed, many businesses close, and the city shuts down.
  • Musicteacher56
    Posts: 621
    Charles--my home parish (not the one I teach at) also does nothing for Christmas until Christmas Eve. The slightest hint that Christmas is coming is the nativity boxes that have been taken down out of the attic, ready for Christmas Eve, and only because the people who decorated for Advent took them down at the same time to avoid having to go upstairs again.

    On the other hand, we have to have our school pageant during Advent because the children are on vacation from 12/20-1/5. But, there is NOTHING related to Christmas IN the church, but only in the school.
    Thanked by 1ClergetKubisz
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    What with the historic 12 days of Christmas being turned on their heads due to the craven moving of Epiphany to the nearest Sunday, the Christmas cycle is not considered over at least until 2 February if not right up to the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday. This leaves plenty of time for Christmas celebrations, school pageants, hymn singing and parties DURING the Christmas cycle. And it leaves no excuse for the slightest anticipation of festivities during the season of Advent, which should be as sacred and inviolable with its own ethos as is Lent. No one HAS to have school pageants before Christmas recess. People do this simply because they want to (and because it seems they really do think that Christmas is over on the 26th December). There is ample time in the extended Christmastide of the new kalendar for doing Christmas stuff.

    Too, there is much to celebrate with parties and school pageants, etc., during the Christmas cycle: there is Epiphany, miracle performances, Baptism of the Lord, Purification, Holy Innocents, Holy Family, Theotokos, and more (not to mention Christmas with the obligatory angels, shepherds and magi). There really is no excuse for Christmas in Advent.
    Thanked by 1JulieColl
  • Musicteacher56
    Posts: 621
    While that all sounds wonderful in theory, and most especially, of course, liturgically, I don't see it happening. Music teachers and classroom teachers are not going to want to come back from their vacations to have to face the Christmas pageant. I will honestly admit, I am one of them. I will say, however, that our school masses following "Christmas" break is full of good music and presentations by the children with regard to what you mentioned, so the children are not missing anything. I do not agree with you that people think Christmas is over by December 26. I think it has more to do with the workload allocated during this time of year and a desire to have a peaceful holy day without having the pageant lurking overhead.
    Thanked by 1Spriggo
  • donr
    Posts: 971
    Most people do think Christmas is over on the 26th. Have every looked outside in your neighbors trash. The very day after Christmas the tree is in the garbage bin. Heck in our neck of the desert. The special pick up day for trees is the week between Christmas and New Years. I think one of the reasons Christmas is over for most people is the fact that they have to get their minds wrapped around the new year with resolutions, all Christmas music wiped off the radio and all news casts and T.V. shows reflecting on "out with the old and in with the new".
    Is outrage!
    Thanked by 1ryand
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    I totally understand the liturgical headspins when operating in two parallel liturgical calendars.

    Last year I got to double-dip with Christ the King, going on pilgrimmage in the EF and then being present in my choir for the OF feast about 3 weeks later. At the same time a friend of mine missed out entirely because she went to the OF mass on the last Sunday of October and went to an EF mass on the last Sunday of Ordinary time.

    Not to mention the headspin this year when the Annunciation fell during Holy Week so it was moved until after the Easter Octave! (Is Jesus a premature baby this year?)

    I still say "Happy Christmas" all the way to the Epiphany. It confuses so many people, including (sadly) most Catholics.
    Thanked by 1donr
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    The twelve days of Christmas start AT Christmas.

    We shouldn't be singing any Christmas hymns/carols before then, whether Walgreens says so or not.
    Thanked by 1Spriggo
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    The stores here are already done with Christmas (which began the day after Halloween) and are working on the Super Bowl. I felt like I was in a time warp when I went to a couple of stores today.
  • ClergetKubiszClergetKubisz
    Posts: 1,912
    @Musicteacher, the same is true for me at our school: kids on vacation during the actual season of Christmas, so the Christmas concert must be towards the end of Advent, when we are still in school. However, at Mass for the school, it is wholly Advent until Dec 24
  • Aristotle EsguerraAristotle Esguerra
    Posts: 1,186
    During Christmastide most are unwittingly commemorating the flight into Egypt.
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