A day full of new traditions!

Forgive my rambling narration, I'm exhausted and need to get some sleep so I can unit like my life depended on it tomorrow.

Yule Log
I was warned, go early and stand by the doors to the Great Hall...when I entered the courtyard of the Wren building (the oldest hall on campus, special, pretty, etc.) there were six 10-foot tall torches burning, filling the air with the scent of smoke and wood as the person assigned to each torch used a giant pair of tongs to place more wood on the fire. The W&M choir sang Christmas carols as the crowd gathered and I met the folk group people who knew what was going on so we could get to rehearsal on time (see Gaudete). Then after the usual sort of introductions that happen at big events, Sam Sadler (VP of Student Affairs, apparently. He sends out numerous humorous emails. And someone has grafittied "Sadler is watching" with a big eye on the big green generator outside the library) read the classic holiday poem "Twas the Night before Finals," with many clever allusions to notable events of the year (NCAA ruling that W&M had to get rid of the feathers in the logo, the wettest fall on record, minor epidemics of sickness). It reminded me of the May Day speeches Nancy J gives. :)

Then we had (surprisingly) a reading of the Nativity from the Gospel of Luke, followed by (less surprisingly) speakers from various campus religious/ethnic organizations talking about holiday observances around the world. The Gentlemen of the College, the oldest a cappella group, gave this amazing rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas that involved going out of sequence, squabbling over which number to do, and a host of other carols thrown in for good measure, ending with "three geese a-nd a duck. QUACK!" The president of the college, Gene Nichol came out dressed as Santa Claus and read "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," and it was really funny to see how many people in the crowd were mouthing along to the story. I know I probably could have recited it too. Then the main ritual began. When we'd entered the courtyard, we'd all taken a sprig of holly from people holding big baskets of it. Two large logs (the yule logs) would be carried through the crowd, and everyone was supposed to think of their worries and anxieties from the past year, brush the holly leaves against the Yule Log for luck as it passed by, and then go into the Great Hall and cast the holly on the fire, symbolizing casting away your worries. (Bryn Mawr's Great Hall is much nicer, btw. This one was pretty plain; the only attraction was the huge fireplace.) As the logs were being carried through, they sang the alma mater, and I was impressed by how many people actually knew it! Harmonies and everything. Though they do have a fast part in the song as well that absolutely everyone knows, rather like the "Enthoumometha" part of Sophias. So I tried to dodge the crush and throw my holly on, and met up with the others to run off to...

Gaudete
The Music Ministry had arranged with the Litergy team to take the third sunday of advent, Gaudete Sunday, and have a Saturday mass where we get to do all our Christmas music and make a big production. We'd had rehearsals throughout the day, and somehow I ended up singing soprano and all the high harmonies! (My voice is still in shock, I think.) But the whole thing turned out really neat. The church is in darkness, and the lector says "Lord, your people are waiting in darkness." Then the brass quartet the music ministry put together, stationed one in each corner, did a call-and-response version of "O Come O Come Emmanuel." They needed to work on their timing a bit more, unfortunately. Then John (Folk Group fearless leader) ran over to the procession to start "Prepare Ye (The Way of the Lord)" from Godspell, and we gradually added voices and instruments as people lit their candles (ala Easter Vigil) until the rock out part, when the sopranos and I started the "Long live God" part...up the octave. Another high harmony on the Gloria (F sharps are higher than they used to be!), a psalm that was straight out of the 70's and sounds very like elevator music. But then we started doing 4 part harmonies for the rest of the songs...and lots of a cappella... Silent Night was really good. It made me miss choir. A very cool Mass, and now I'm all psyched for Christmas. Plus they had snacks and cookies and hot chocolate afterward, and we choir junkies sang all the other christmas songs we hadn't gotten to, and it was lots of fun. (I dropped down to the alto harmonies, thank goodness.) And now I'm tired and I should go to bed to be very busy working tomorrow.