Let's say you were born in the Middle Ages....

[icarus]

Let's say you were born in the Middle Ages.

After a long day salting away food for the winter darning socks, you would put away your apron thimble and hear that one or more of the passion plays were being performed in the courtyard in front of the church. Actors were basically vagabonds but... a play.

It's a muddy slog, but everyone is there, rubbing elbows, gossiping and laughing. No one actually watches the play unless it gets interesting. Kids run in and out of the crowd, excited by the unusual activity.

There were three main ones, and you probably know them by heart. Certainly you know the basic story line. But the slapstick of the three shepherds shoving each other about like the three stooges was a hoot, and it was a touching moment when the shepherds gave lambswool to the baby Jesus under that big star, after all those wise men brought their fancy gifts. What was myrrh, anyway?

In the Paradise Play the devil was half bad guy and half comic relief, and ran in and out of the crowd, hissing. A risky manuever given how riled up the crowd got, but the little fellow was fast. (Check your pockets.)

Now let's say you lived in Seattle, Black Friday, 2007.

You would bundle up your kids and go downtown to Macy's to watch the giant electric star on the side of the department store light up, kicking off the Christmas shopping season with big savings. Macy's Inc. also lights a four story Christmas tree and there's a fireworks display the moment the star is lit. After the fireworks there are carols singing "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree (Have A Happy Holiday)" and a fat Santa standing next to the mayor and most of the members of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce.

Most years you need an umbrella, but today the skies are clear and cold. There are hundreds of shoppers with plastic bags full of parcels. Tired toddlers crying. You make your kids hold hands as they cross the street.

After braving the sales at Nordstrom and Macy's and buying cotton candy (what the heck), you and your youngsters stand in line to take a ride on the restored Merry-Go-Round in Westlake Center, alive with lights.

The Upshot of it All.

I can't decide if it's really all that different. But I have to say, I watched the extravaganza starting the Christmas shopping season appalled and laughing at the sheer tackiness of it all. What's the underlying message of celebrating the start of the shopping season? Is this really what we celebrate?

Comments

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*whispers* I liked the Waldorf version. We had electric lights and we celebrated, old-style. Consumerism was scoffed at. (The hard-core Waldorfians only gave hand made gifts.)

[enname.livejournal.com]

*whispers* I liked the teeny church my father used to take services too in the middle of nowhere, no electricity and only candles and one very old farmer reading out one of the passions (and adventures with snakes). Atheist that I am, the atmosphere was lovely still.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*whispers* Cooool.

*in an undertone* We celebrated Michaelmas with strange pagan ritual combined with Eurythmy in the fall.

Then Halloween had its own ritual (and our costumes!), forming and reforming lines until we were all in a big Waldorfian (it is a verb, noun, and adjective) circle.

Then in the weeks leading up to Christmas came St. Lucia day (you never knew when it was coming), where the second grade wandered the halls in multicolored robes with one little girl in white, singing together, Wake up, Lucia comes today. Oh be glad.... the voices falling away, then getting closer, until they'd come to our classroom door and encircle the room, singing. Then the teacher would be served tea and cookies (just the teacher, not us) and they'd leave, singing, voices dispersing down the hall.

The halls would be filled with the sounds of recorder trios, practicing for the yearly medieval festival. (I played both soprano and alto recorder.) Did I mention that our building was a state landmark and looked like a castle? And that we had an auditorium with vaulted ceilings and leaded glass windows?

Then we'd have the advent candles (my teachers were firebugs) before every class, with more music. Crafts class was taken up make little crocheted dolls for the medieval festival. Then the last week of classes, the teachers would perform the Shepherd's Play every year for the entire school, kindergarteners in the front row, the high schoolers sprawled in the back.

Then there was the year when all the first graders (I was one) carried candles into a spiral of pine boughs.

Then the medieval festival itself, with roast pig, jugglers (that was my boyfriend Chris), the recorder trio, wandering carolers in costume, and at the feast a professional troupe that performed, standing on the tables, while the rest of my class acted as servers (we'd been trained to move fast, act servile, and mumble appropriate phrases ;).

Then upstairs, while the clean-up was going on, the far more traditional "drinking of the leftover wine" by the teenage servers got underway... along with the traditional couples vanishing into the costume room....