Advent Hymnody

One of the fascinating, and for Anglican sticklers like myself, vexing ways catholic Christianity finds itself in conflict with modern Western culture is over Christmas. Not just the current "War on Christmas" of Fox News fame which is a more recognizable part of the Culture Wars, but the conflict between the commercial secular calendar and the catholic liturgical calendar.

Out on the public square it has been Christmas since well before Thanksgiving. Decorations and carols have been popping up since early November, which is late. I think only the Election kept them from coming out in late October. Last year I saw Christmas candy next to Halloween candy the week before All Hallow's Eve (that year, in a different store, I watched as employees put up a Valentine's Day candy display....on Christmas Eve!). By the time December 25 actually arrives, everyone is so sick of Christmas kitsch that it very quickly gets the boot. As the "Holiday Season" creeps ever earlier, it is also starting to end sooner. I saw neighbors taking down their Christmas ornaments the next morning, and most stores were clear of red and green by the following weekend. It has long irritated me that the Boy Scouts insist on doing their Christmas tree pick-up well before Christmas actually ends. But it makes a great deal of sense to them since most people want the ol' Tanenbaum out of the house well before the champagne corks pop at midnight, January 1.

This vexes catholic (small 'c') sticklers, because the liturgical calendar has things the other way around. The month before the feast of the Incarnation is Advent, and Christmas lasts nearly a fortnight after the 25th. Episcopalians can be so pugnacious about this that December on the Church Pension Group's wall calendar has a humorous depiction of the "Advent Police" citing people for Christmas activity too early. The most obvious example of this obstreperousness is in music. Despite the public's longing for it, despite the radio stations blaring them, and the shopping malls drowning in them, you will not hear Christmas carols in Church until Christmas Eve. And then, we will sing them to our hearts content for nearly two weeks, long after everyone else is sick of them. We get around this in some ways, usually with non-liturgical events, caroling parties, hospital visits, "concerts" and such, but in liturgy we hold the line.

Their are only a few real vestiges of the liturgical seasons remaining. One is the only Advent hymn which has managed to cross over into the Christmas carol world, O Come, O Come Emmanuel (well, it's appropriate for both, but it's primarily an Advent hymn in Church). Another is an entirely secular song, The Twelve Days of Christmas. The latter, with its partridges and pear trees, is of course problematic. Coupled with the continuing popularity of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, it should remind people that Christmas does not end until the eve of the feast of the Epiphany, January 6 (which is to say, on the Twelfth Night after Christmas...Jan. 5...twelve days after Christmas Eve). But as I recall reading in an article last year, polls show a majority of Americans think the "twelve days of Christmas" are the twelve days before Christmas. Argh!

The irony of all of this....Advent has some of the best hymns of the whole year. When I scan my mental lexicon of favorite hymns, probably as much as a third are from Advent. Which brings me to really an essential point...modern American culture, even when it seizes upon certain aspects of its own Christian heritage, completely misses out on the richest parts of the catholic tradition and the Christian faith itself. In some ways we should not complain. It is precisely the commercialization of Christmas that is robbing it of its import to most people, and leading to the Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays Wars we see in the news. That Western capitalism has not capitalized on Advent (or Easter or Pentecost) is probably a blessing. But that does not mean that most people aren't missing out.So when you see me in the store, looking slightly pained at every Jingle-Bell Rock, know that in my heart I'm singing something else. Songs of expectation of the coming of Christ, not just as the babe at Christmas, but in glory at the end of time.

For the record...some of my favorites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVjL4tRYrD4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw639RcD2YU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Lj48lYLIvs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0VuMxp5mUE

I may treat the words of these over the next few days. The words, after all, are the important thing. But for the moment, the music is splendid enough. (They're pretty good arrangements, and make me want to keep an encouraging eye on the nice folks at http://hifihymnbook.com/).