Amanda DeSalme-Christmas Hymns

Around Christmas time, you start hearing all kinds of Christmas songs on the radio, and people start humming them and they get stuck in my head...

and then I remember my favorite church service of the year from my childhood (I kind of stopped going to church when I came to college)-the Christmas Eve candle-lighting service. It was my favorite because we sang so much more than on regular Sunday services. Everyone standing up and singing songs that are known from years of repetition is very comforting. Especially when everyone is sincerely giving their voice to the praise of God. We always sang "Silent Night" as we lit candles, light spreading across the pews like wildfire and illuminating everyone's faces in the dark. It was so serene and peaceful and touching, to hear everyone's voices blending together in a solemn, sweet hymn. I think church is actually where my love of singing originated, because I sang in church ever since I was a very small child, in the church choirs and in little family duets and trios. I remember being fascinated by the notes on the pages of the hymnal as my mother pointed to them so I could try to follow along. I remember my first discovery of how the melody goes up when the notes on the page go up. This recollection is special to me and could be interpreted as holy. I devote myself to the art of music as if it were a religion. And according to Van der Leeuw, primitive peoples equate art and religion. So it's not too outlandish of a statement for me to say I am devoted to the religion of music. But for me I know the music is more of a vehicle to bring me closer to those experiences of religious enlightenment. It is not the physicality of music that is spiritual, it is the "other" that it brings me to.

So. that is all, I was simply remembering how much I loved singing in church, especially during Christmas. I miss it- maybe I should get back into church.