I've been rather slow this year to get into the Christmas spirit. Perhaps it's because we're in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Even though we had a joyous and ebullient election recently of an extremely popular and well loved person for President, it hasn't dulled the fact that money is tight this year and probably will remain so for the foreseeable future. Sure, gas price are way down (thank goodness for small favors!) but it's hard to say how long that will last. So it's hard for me to find within myself the "Christmas spirit" that I have had in years past. I feel like something's missing this year, something I can't quite put my finger on. What it is, I don't know, but I guess it's the fact of living with so much uncertainty about what the future is going to bring despite the high popularity of our incoming President. So I've tried to take solace in remembering times past when I felt a certain something of the season that I can't seem to summon this year. Pictured above is a photograph of Akron's "Chriskindl Market" (notice they leave out the "t" at the end of "Chris" - I suspect this is an effort not to offend those not necessarily of the Christian faith or not to make a civic endorsement of Christianity or some such politically correct thing). It gets better each year as it expands and Akron's sister city Chemnitz in Germany sends over its craftsmen to run this event, so it's as close to a real deal as you can get in an American city. Going to this is really fun and does help me to restore some feeling of Christmas spirit, except the one thing I'd love to hear is some genuine German Christmas music. That would be the icing on the cake. Fortunately, if I am overly starved for some, I happen to have three CD's of it that I bought from Amazon.com a few years ago. Listening to them takes me right back to the Christmas that I spent in Europe with my sister. Truly, the single most magical place to be at this time of year is Germany and Austria, because so many of the Christmas traditions that we celebrate today came from people from those countries who emigrated to the United States and brought their traditions with them. Thus, Akron's "Chriskindl Market", hearkening back to Akron's strong German immigrant community that once dominated its population.
One of the things I like to do this time of year to try to get myself into the spirit of the season is not only to play German Christmas music to remind myself of having been in Europe during the season twelve years ago, but to play Gregorian chant for the season while burning frankincense or myrrh, which brings back memories of old Catholic High Masses that were the norm for the season when I was growing up Catholic. I used to love the mystery of the Latin chant and the scent of the church as the processional marched its way up to the apse at the beginning of the mass, censor waving and sending waves of delicious smells throughout the church as the chant filled the sanctuary. It was a beautiful and mysterious pageant that was pure theatre and was meant to put congregants in mind of the mystery of God and being in the presence of something greater than yourself. I am no longer Catholic, as I felt that the Church left me decades ago, but I do find myself missing the pageantry and mystery of the High Mass that signaled a high holiday like Christmas. So I try to recreate just a little bit of that at home with some incense and music that puts me back in that spirit of mystery and wonder of the season. It's amazing how certain scents can take you back to a place and a memory that is so strong like that. Other smells that take me back to Christmases past are oranges, apples and pine, oranges because we used to receive an orange in the toe of our stockings, because during the Depression years in which my mother grew up, an orange was a rare and expensive treat, and I suspect that this was to remind us of that fact. Apples bring back memories of a Christmas where we went to a local apple orchard that also grew Christmas trees, and we always sought a good blue spruce for our tree. That year, we went out there, crunching through the snow in search of the ultimate Christmas tree until we found it, and when we did, we cut it down and hauled it to our car, the tang of the pine scent deliciously filling the air. After we selected our tree, we went with the farmer to a barn cellar filled with that season's apple harvest, and even though it was December, the apples were still fairly fresh in the chilly barn. When he threw the doors open, I remember the air being filled with the sweet scent of apples and how delicious that was. I seem to recall taking some home and making pomanders out of a few of them. These are the kinds of memories that I hang on to and when I am feeling blue, I find ways to recreate those smells to bring back such pleasant memories, which inevitably lifts my spirit and puts me back in a good mood and the real spirit of the season.
I've been rather slow this year to get into the Christmas spirit. Perhaps it's because we're in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Even though we had a joyous and ebullient election recently of an extremely popular and well loved person for President, it hasn't dulled the fact that money is tight this year and probably will remain so for the foreseeable future. Sure, gas price are way down (thank goodness for small favors!) but it's hard to say how long that will last. So it's hard for me to find within myself the "Christmas spirit" that I have had in years past. I feel like something's missing this year, something I can't quite put my finger on. What it is, I don't know, but I guess it's the fact of living with so much uncertainty about what the future is going to bring despite the high popularity of our incoming President. So I've tried to take solace in remembering times past when I felt a certain something of the season that I can't seem to summon this year. Pictured above is a photograph of Akron's "Chriskindl Market" (notice they leave out the "t" at the end of "Chris" - I suspect this is an effort not to offend those not necessarily of the Christian faith or not to make a civic endorsement of Christianity or some such politically correct thing). It gets better each year as it expands and Akron's sister city Chemnitz in Germany sends over its craftsmen to run this event, so it's as close to a real deal as you can get in an American city. Going to this is really fun and does help me to restore some feeling of Christmas spirit, except the one thing I'd love to hear is some genuine German Christmas music. That would be the icing on the cake. Fortunately, if I am overly starved for some, I happen to have three CD's of it that I bought from Amazon.com a few years ago. Listening to them takes me right back to the Christmas that I spent in Europe with my sister. Truly, the single most magical place to be at this time of year is Germany and Austria, because so many of the Christmas traditions that we celebrate today came from people from those countries who emigrated to the United States and brought their traditions with them. Thus, Akron's "Chriskindl Market", hearkening back to Akron's strong German immigrant community that once dominated its population.
One of the things I like to do this time of year to try to get myself into the spirit of the season is not only to play German Christmas music to remind myself of having been in Europe during the season twelve years ago, but to play Gregorian chant for the season while burning frankincense or myrrh, which brings back memories of old Catholic High Masses that were the norm for the season when I was growing up Catholic. I used to love the mystery of the Latin chant and the scent of the church as the processional marched its way up to the apse at the beginning of the mass, censor waving and sending waves of delicious smells throughout the church as the chant filled the sanctuary. It was a beautiful and mysterious pageant that was pure theatre and was meant to put congregants in mind of the mystery of God and being in the presence of something greater than yourself. I am no longer Catholic, as I felt that the Church left me decades ago, but I do find myself missing the pageantry and mystery of the High Mass that signaled a high holiday like Christmas. So I try to recreate just a little bit of that at home with some incense and music that puts me back in that spirit of mystery and wonder of the season. It's amazing how certain scents can take you back to a place and a memory that is so strong like that. Other smells that take me back to Christmases past are oranges, apples and pine, oranges because we used to receive an orange in the toe of our stockings, because during the Depression years in which my mother grew up, an orange was a rare and expensive treat, and I suspect that this was to remind us of that fact. Apples bring back memories of a Christmas where we went to a local apple orchard that also grew Christmas trees, and we always sought a good blue spruce for our tree. That year, we went out there, crunching through the snow in search of the ultimate Christmas tree until we found it, and when we did, we cut it down and hauled it to our car, the tang of the pine scent deliciously filling the air. After we selected our tree, we went with the farmer to a barn cellar filled with that season's apple harvest, and even though it was December, the apples were still fairly fresh in the chilly barn. When he threw the doors open, I remember the air being filled with the sweet scent of apples and how delicious that was. I seem to recall taking some home and making pomanders out of a few of them. These are the kinds of memories that I hang on to and when I am feeling blue, I find ways to recreate those smells to bring back such pleasant memories, which inevitably lifts my spirit and puts me back in a good mood and the real spirit of the season.
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