Christmas II: Carols and Misrecognition

For those who celebrate, I hope everyone had a great Christmas, Hanukkah, Yuletide, Festivus, Kwanzaa, or whatever it is you are celebrating, have celebrated, or will be celebrating!!!

I had the fortune to attend 5 Christmas Eve services and 1 Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. 

There was a surprising amount of consistency between the services of various denominations. Virtually every service featured the carols: "Silent Night," "O Little Town of Bethlehem," "Joy to the World," and "We Three Kings of Orient Are." 

The Scripture readings were almost universally from Luke 2 and Isaiah 9. Some also chose to read the famous John 3:16. 

In this post I will talk about the carols and in the next post I will briefly discuss the chosen Scriptures. 

Catherine Bell in Ritual Theory: Ritual Practice talks about various aspects of ritual/practice, including 'misrecognition.' Rituals feature a misrecognition is of their limits and constraints, and of their ends and means, pg 82. 

One example given is that in a gift exchange there is often a misrecognition of generosity, since the gifts exchanged are usually of approximately equal value pg 83. 

(The basic idea of misrecognition is that ritual participants are involved in something that can not be brought about solely through their actions as individuals.)

If Bonhoeffer was right that Christians should and do participate in the Christmas story, if Walter Kim (the pastor giving the sermon at Park Street) is right that Christians participate in the most epic story ever, then we should take seriously the activities of Christmas services as ritual. 

Thus, we should find instances of misrecognition. 

Two of the services I attended, Park Street Church and King's Chapel, had a mother and father with an infant child dress up as the Holy family (Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus).

Christmas Decorations at Park Street Church

These congregations invited us to adore the Holy family. A deliberate misrecognition of what they were actually doing vs. what was happening in the ritual. (No one really thinks that they were adoring the actual Holy family). 

Many carols exhibit a similar misrecognition. "Silent Night" was sung almost exclusively in the present tense. Almost as if by singing the song we were witnessing Christ's birth. 

Two others, "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "We Three Kings of Orient Are" start with present tense while Christ is being born and end either in the contemporary world using present tense or reference the fulfillment of Christ's life. For instance, in "We Three Kings of Orient Are", the final verse references the 'stone cold tomb.'

Many liturgical calendars also exhibit a similar misrecognition of time. 

According to many traditions, Christmas or Christmastide is actually twelve days and ends with Epiphany. In twelve days of ritual time we go from the birth of Christ to Epiphany.

Thus, the Christmas story, more than most Christian stories has a tendency to mesh the beginning and end of Christ's life. 

Arguably all of these are examples of a 'misrecognition' of time and place with believers being invited to participate in witnessing the birth of Christ as if it is currently happening.