I recently underwent that assault on the senses called crossing hemispheres near the equinox. Or in plain English, flying from New Zealand to England at the depths of winter.
The pain of exchanging bright blue skies for iron grey, brilliant sunlight for dark days, and balmy evenings for bitter dawn is an inevitable part of going home for Christmas.
But, as I try unsuccessfully to explain to people in New Zealand, the long dark winters of Europe have a wonderful side-effect, which has to be experienced to understand it.
Put simply, in England we have hours of darkness during the day – which allows us the joy of light-in-darkness.
I love the way the town centres and streets of St Albans and Harpenden are adorned with lights for the festive season. I love having a proper candlelight service at four o’clock. I love the feeling of wrapping a warm, bright house around the family, when it’s dark and cold outside.
For most people, sadly, this lovely festive feeling only lasts till early January, but the early Christians knew better, and they carried on the festive season right up to the beginning of February, to the lovely festival of light called Candlemass, celebrating Jesus as the Light to Lighten the Darkness.
Some of us still do – at St Saviour’s, Sandpit Lane, St Albans, on Candlemass (Sunday Feb 3rd) we’ll be celebrating the festival of light with a specially commissioned musical version of the story of Jesus’ birth right up to His Presentation in the Temple, written in 150 AD, but as moving and beautiful today was when it was written so many centuries ago.
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