The Ninth Day of Christmas
02/01/15 06:30
In part of of the Christian tradition, the ninth day of Christmas is the day to reflect on the angels who took the news of the birth of the Christ Child to the shepherds. The Gospel of Luke reports that when the shepherds were out in the fields at night an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. They were afraid. But the angel calmed their fears and reported of the birth of the Savior. Then it reports that the angel was suddenly joined by a multitude of the heavenly host.
I don’t know how the tradition was started that there were nine choirs of angels, but it seems to have persisted. Having dealt with church choirs for most of my career, I’m aware that there can be some interesting personalities and tender feelings among such a group of talented musicians. I have been known to comment that there are two types of church musicians: the ones who aren’t very musically talented but have gentle and kind personalities and the the ones who are musically brilliant and have quirky personalities. Given the choice, I’ll go for the quirky personalities every time. Of course this is an exaggeration. I’ve also known exceptional musicians who have exceptional personalities. And we have been blessed with some really great musicians in our time in the church. But I’ve also invested my share of time in soothing hurt feelings and engaging in conflict resolution with church choirs. Like many blessings, choirs come with a certain maintenance cost.
So I can’t imagine having to deal with nine choirs.
But that is the tradition.
In the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” the gift for the ninth day of Christmas is “nine ladies dancing.” They are supposed to symbolize the nine choirs of angels. Just as dancers are swift and graceful in their movements, so too the angels of heaven are said to be swift and graceful in doing God’s bidding.
I guess whoever made up that part of the tradition had never been a “ballet dad.” I loved the part of my life when part of my responsibilities were giving our daughter rides to and from ballet practice and providing rides for all of the special rehearsals and ballet performances. I was a proud father when I sat in the audience and watched the dancers on stage.
But art comes at a cost. Ballet dancers have to practice and practice. They get stiff and sore and experience injuries. Inside of those toe shoes are bruised feet and there are days when those graceful dancers get grumpy. “Dad you are here to drive the car. You don’t have to talk to my friends. And you don’t need to come into the studio. You can drop me off in the parking lot.”
I got it then.
I get it now. There is a cost to art and one of the costs is that the support team needs to remain invisible and keep from demanding attention.
Nine choirs of angels probably create a huge amount of robe cleaning that needs to be done. Some choir robes can be washed in a washing machine. Some have to be dry cleaned. And woe to the person who forgets the difference. Then there are the stoles that the choir members wear.
And don’t get me started on music! Choirs always want to buy new music, and the cost of music can be substantial. And they always believe that they need at least 25% more music than the members of the choir because the choir might grow or because it takes a choir of 35 in order to have 20 singers show up on a given Sunday. Then the music gets put in the singers’ folders, but they never remember to turn it in. Prices of music keep showing up months after that anthem has been sung. The choir room is a constant mess of stacks of un-filed music. And even after a work day to put all of the music away, the folders will have different numbers of pieces of music. The next time the choir sings the anthem, there will be a request to order 5 more copies, which is better than the years when choir directors might make six illegal copies of music for every anthem and I lived in constant fear of a lawsuit emptying the church coffers.
While I’m on the subject, one of the reasons that church electricity bills are so big is that all musicians are afraid of the dark. The angels might have calmed the fears of the shepherds when they appeared in the middle of the night, but I’m thinking that the only reason they were able to do their work is that they were surrounded by the glory of God. Our choir needs to have every light on for every rehearsal. If it is dark, all of the hallways have to be lighted because they use the restrooms. The sanctuary needs to be fully lit, because some of its light might help in the choir loft. The lights to both stairways need to be turned on as well as the lights in both cloak rooms. And when the rehearsal is finished and they have all left, then we need to go around and turn off all of the lights. If I am out of the building when they depart, the lights get left on. Even if a choir director reports that she or he has turned off all of the lights, I’ll find at least four or five left on. After all you have to turn on the lights to see which direction to turn the switches.
Our corner of the church has never been big on angelology. I don’t know much about angels at all. But I think one might have to be God Almighty to have enough patience for nine choirs. I’m pretty happy with just one.
I don’t know how the tradition was started that there were nine choirs of angels, but it seems to have persisted. Having dealt with church choirs for most of my career, I’m aware that there can be some interesting personalities and tender feelings among such a group of talented musicians. I have been known to comment that there are two types of church musicians: the ones who aren’t very musically talented but have gentle and kind personalities and the the ones who are musically brilliant and have quirky personalities. Given the choice, I’ll go for the quirky personalities every time. Of course this is an exaggeration. I’ve also known exceptional musicians who have exceptional personalities. And we have been blessed with some really great musicians in our time in the church. But I’ve also invested my share of time in soothing hurt feelings and engaging in conflict resolution with church choirs. Like many blessings, choirs come with a certain maintenance cost.
So I can’t imagine having to deal with nine choirs.
But that is the tradition.
In the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” the gift for the ninth day of Christmas is “nine ladies dancing.” They are supposed to symbolize the nine choirs of angels. Just as dancers are swift and graceful in their movements, so too the angels of heaven are said to be swift and graceful in doing God’s bidding.
I guess whoever made up that part of the tradition had never been a “ballet dad.” I loved the part of my life when part of my responsibilities were giving our daughter rides to and from ballet practice and providing rides for all of the special rehearsals and ballet performances. I was a proud father when I sat in the audience and watched the dancers on stage.
But art comes at a cost. Ballet dancers have to practice and practice. They get stiff and sore and experience injuries. Inside of those toe shoes are bruised feet and there are days when those graceful dancers get grumpy. “Dad you are here to drive the car. You don’t have to talk to my friends. And you don’t need to come into the studio. You can drop me off in the parking lot.”
I got it then.
I get it now. There is a cost to art and one of the costs is that the support team needs to remain invisible and keep from demanding attention.
Nine choirs of angels probably create a huge amount of robe cleaning that needs to be done. Some choir robes can be washed in a washing machine. Some have to be dry cleaned. And woe to the person who forgets the difference. Then there are the stoles that the choir members wear.
And don’t get me started on music! Choirs always want to buy new music, and the cost of music can be substantial. And they always believe that they need at least 25% more music than the members of the choir because the choir might grow or because it takes a choir of 35 in order to have 20 singers show up on a given Sunday. Then the music gets put in the singers’ folders, but they never remember to turn it in. Prices of music keep showing up months after that anthem has been sung. The choir room is a constant mess of stacks of un-filed music. And even after a work day to put all of the music away, the folders will have different numbers of pieces of music. The next time the choir sings the anthem, there will be a request to order 5 more copies, which is better than the years when choir directors might make six illegal copies of music for every anthem and I lived in constant fear of a lawsuit emptying the church coffers.
While I’m on the subject, one of the reasons that church electricity bills are so big is that all musicians are afraid of the dark. The angels might have calmed the fears of the shepherds when they appeared in the middle of the night, but I’m thinking that the only reason they were able to do their work is that they were surrounded by the glory of God. Our choir needs to have every light on for every rehearsal. If it is dark, all of the hallways have to be lighted because they use the restrooms. The sanctuary needs to be fully lit, because some of its light might help in the choir loft. The lights to both stairways need to be turned on as well as the lights in both cloak rooms. And when the rehearsal is finished and they have all left, then we need to go around and turn off all of the lights. If I am out of the building when they depart, the lights get left on. Even if a choir director reports that she or he has turned off all of the lights, I’ll find at least four or five left on. After all you have to turn on the lights to see which direction to turn the switches.
Our corner of the church has never been big on angelology. I don’t know much about angels at all. But I think one might have to be God Almighty to have enough patience for nine choirs. I’m pretty happy with just one.