7th December - Christmas Prayers

I was getting a bit worried this year as it looked like we wouldn't be back 'home' on Christmas Eve, and thus able to go to the Christingle service at my Dad's church.  By home, I mean back to our home county where both Stonell and Walker families live and where the rather splendid church at Bishops Cannings is, where my Dad sings in the choir.  It is a splendid church, enormous considering it's in a little village, but as the name of the village gives the hint, it was a Bishop's church.  Anyhow, as we won't be going up until Christmas lunchtime now, I was going to miss my chance to sing loudly in a confined area, but I am off to Nine Lessons and Carols at our local abbey instead, so I can get my Holy on in an appropriate setting.  Talking of getting your Holy on...

Christmas Prayers (1872) Henry Bacon

There isn't a thing I don't love about this picture, from the trefoil cut-outs on the pews, to the grate in the floor of the church and the people, each hinting at a little back story.  For example...

The little boy looks back at us, and he doesn't look very happy.  Mind you, his mother has seen fit to dress him in a sailor suit.  Poor moppet.  I assumed the lady to his right was his mother, in the brown and fur outfit, but maybe the lady in black on the other side is his mother, and she is a widow and his father was a sailor who drowned!  I might have been at the sherry again...I'll come back to him.

I love this couple:  he is devoutly and appropriately in prayer and she is checking out his manly thighs.  Sorry, I'm sure she is thinking of higher things.  Sorry again, I blame the sherry....I want her jacket and matching muff, that is just splendid.  You get the impression that she is in her best finery, in order to swank it up a notch and be noticed.  Sadly, he's a bit distracted by all the religion that's going on.  Typical.

Above them hangs some very jolly Christmas wreaths.  We have Faith (a cross), Hope (an anchor) and, oh, I was going to go with Charity, which is normally a heart, but this is just a circle.  In the past, the circular form of wreaths was meant to symbolise new beginnings, the continuation of life after the 'death' of the year, the winter, the darkness.  I wonder if these symbols are shown in the people below?  The young man praying is obviously Faith, the young lady eyeing him up might be Hope and the boy could be New Beginnings or a continuation of life after death.  I think the boy looks at us to see if we are praying or if we are looking around like he is, like the girl behind him is.  For all his prayers, the man in the pew behind is missing the human element to Christmas, the boy, the girl, the rather suspect looking urchins in the balcony.  Christmas isn't just about praying, the little boy seems to be telling us, it's about noticing the people around you.

I promise when I am in the Abbey, I shall have a peek at those around me, and I won't sing too loudly.  I can't promise on the last one though, I have an impressive set of lungs.  I just winked in a saucy manner, but that's quite hard to convey in type without resorting to emoticons...

See you tomorrow...