THE FIELD RECORDS ADVENT SPECIAL #1

You're an atheist. Or at least, you're not a devout theist. You're memories of Christmas are, most likely, not religiously based. The things you associate with Christmas are the things that you were treated to in your parents' house when you were between the ages of five and....fifteen? Maybe at a stretch. You remember the certain types of food, the anticipation, chocolate calendars and the last day of school as the parts that made up the sum.

Then you start feeling guilty. BBC News runs pieces with local Parish clerks decrying the loss of the true meaning of Christmas. The media as a whole in fact, goes into something of an overstimulated, reactionary frenzy, most often by gazing un-ironically over their own past festive experiences whilst pouring scorn upon the way you celebrate, you commercialised bastard. Every strand of tinsel that you put up is another betrayal. Just go and dig Jesus up and poke him in the eyes why don't you?

I certainly used to feel guilty, and quite jaded as a consequence. All the best things I associated with Christmas were things from my childhood, things that I, theoretically at least, had grown out of. The fact that some things felt different, and that other things didn't elicit the same excitement they once did made me feel sad, and old.

I could blame The Corporations for marketing Christmas more and more at children at the expense of there being any real point to the season beyond toys, but that would be fairly pointless. No, my malaise was rooted in the fact that, with those childish things swept by the wayside, Christmas was left to bear the blunt side of my atheism. It didn't take to it too well. If you find the ideas raised in The Bible a little hard to swallow, chances are the solemnity attached to the occasion by certain, organised sections of society is not going to appeal either. I can't celebrate Christmas like I did when I was eight. That would be weird. The sailors' outfit doesn't fit anymore, and besides, I feel pretty bad receiving gifts these days.

So how can I celebrate, merrily and guiltlessly!? The media (yes, them again) observe, muse, pontificate, critique and ultimately maul the PURE SHALLOWNESS OF IT ALL, the scrapping hordes at Topshop and Tesco, gouging and pinching in order to lap up every last drop of the experience. It's all fairly exaggerated, and anyone who runs around like a mad twat at Christmas is probably a bit unhinged anyway, but how can I not listen to TV!? It's been so good to me, you, us, all these years, with it's Noel Edmonds and it's Sam and Mark. It's hard to believe that there is any other way. Dowdy, black and white conformism or multi coloured soullessness, singing and swigging merrily on your journey to the fire. I end up hating Christmas simply because I'm being told that I can't celebrate it right.

But then you do some research. Turns out that the end of the year, according to the Gregorian Calendar, has always been a traditional time of celebration, with feasting, general revelry and in Saturnalian (December 17th) Rome, public nudity. The New Testament does not give an exact date as to Christ's birth. Furthermore, before December 25th became the popular sausage that it is now, Christ's birth was traditionally celebrated on March 25th, known as the Incarnation. So it could easily be argued that the Church simply co-opted society at large's yearly festivities as a means of making us feel bad.

That's pretty damning. I'm sure that at some, if not most Churches, the Christmas sermon makes a point of celebrating the message rather than the implied 'birth'. Also, what of it? So Christmas isn't inherently religious. Is the end of the Calendar year therefore worthy cause for merriment? Is the dominance of good times and good cheer celebratory, or placatory?

This is probably way over my head. The point remains that the revelation of Christmas as a time always intended for nonsense has made me a lot less guilty about enjoying the aesthetics and cosmetics of this time of year. And what are we atheists to truly enjoy if not the visually appealing nature and indulgences of the season? Festive lights are pretty, cranberry muffins, mince pies, brandy and mulled wine will always have a certain social appeal, and church choirs will always be almost impossibly moving, regardless of what they are singing.

Which is where we arrive at the point of this non-diatribe. The following MP3's are of Canterbury Cathedral's Choir, recorded last week at the annual Service. I felt these were the particular highlights of the evening, although the whole thing was pretty amazing, the place being lit, and heated, solely by candles. Turns out Canterbury Cathedral has pretty good acoustics too. It also turns out that you don't have to be religious to get a spiritual lift from this sort of thing.
The first one is the choir a capella, which, it turns out, is called an antiphon. The second features some great use of a violin, and the third is a short one of The Catanta Choir singing as they walked, in a fairly spooky, deathly slow procession, out of the Cathedral.

O Israel (antiphon)

The Choral Society

The Catanta Choir

And that, for me, is Christmas.