We have many friends who live in the town who enjoy rich and fulfilling lives and they all comment on how country folk are much more aware of the seasons than are they. However, because overwhelming numbers of people now live in towns those of us for whom the seasons matter are a small minority. Despite this, I have yet to meet anyone in the Benefice who is not grateful for being alive in such a wonderful part of the English countryside, and for being able to share in a rural way of life.
I guess we all experience that wonderful sense of continuity as we graze our stock and work the land which we know has produced seasonal food for over a thousand years, and we may occasionally also reflect on how that seasonal routine was celebrated by our ancestors even before Christianity came to this part of Gloucestershire.
Since then, of course, the church calendar has maintained a powerful influence on rural folk especially during the run up to Christmas. In earlier years my children would run home from school to open the little flaps on the advent calendar, but in more recent year’s priority has been given to preparing the Christmas Birds and getting ready for lambing.
There is however, always time for carol singing around the lanes and this year will be no exception. This activity can have its excitements, and I have written previously about the occasion when a number of us were mistakenly given half pint glasses of cooking sherry instead of dandelion and burdock and of how that, as none of us had the heart to tell the old lady of her error, we completed the evening in an advanced stage of inebriation. This would not have been so bad had the carollers not been from a Christian group known for its strictly abstemious views.
Carol singing is becoming very popular again as youngsters and their parents discover the joy of personal expression through song. We are told that singing is good for you, and research published earlier this year showed that people who sing at least once a week live six years longer than those who don’t. In addition, they are less likely to be affected by asthma and heart attacks. I do wonder however, if the lower incidence of heart attacks amongst carol singers is due, less to the physical effort of walking from one cottage to another than it is to the beverages handed out by the listeners. There can be no doubt, that ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ takes on a different emphasis as the evening wears on and thoughts of mulled wine and hot mince-pies at a local home, start to fill ones mind.
For those unable to go carolling around the lanes there is opportunity for singing carols at Christmas services, whilst for the more enthusiastic singer, Redmarley and Dymock have church choirs which are often in action with special music to adorn services.
Talking of church choirs however, reminds me that their vocal efforts are not always appreciated. This was shown by a recent poster outside a Baptist church in Wichita Kansas which read, “Sunday’s sermon is: What is Hell?” It then continued, “Everyone is invited to come early to hear the choir practice.”
This year, I am hopeful that singing carols will not only extend life’s span, but add a lot of seasonal pleasure to singer and listener alike.
View from the Pew 