John Doan: Music
Festival
"We will go with our young and old, with our sons and daughters, and with our flocks and herds, because we are to celebrate a festival to the LORD." Moses Ex.10:9Throughout the British Isles during the golden age of Celtic saints there was much time given to celebration just as had been chronicled in the ancient writings of the Hebrews millennia before. What had been popular events centered around the worship of various gods and nature spirits became reinterpreted to come in line with the new vision of missionaries and their followers of "The Way." In the year 597 A.D. Pope Gregory sent Augustine to south-east England and among his orders was to systematically destroy pagan altars and images. He was careful to point out that "the idols are to be destroyed, but the temples themselves are to be aspersed with holy water ... and purified from the worship of demons and dedicated to the service of the true God." He allowed for the sacrificing of oxen to the praise of God so as to continue the tradition of old feast days. "If the people are allowed some worldly pleasures
in this way, they will more readily come to desire the joys of the spirit." A whole variety of feast days followed intended to be the joyful celebrations of Christian Mysteries such as Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost (Whit Sunday) and the devotion in particular places to patronal saints. Holy days then were early versions of our holidays now. People took great joy in ceremony and tradition busying themselves decorating the church, bringing out the finest furnishing for the altar and the best vestments for the service. Within each home the festive mood was expressed by draping chairs, displaying table decorations, renewing floor coverings, etc. Lit candles and incense as well as more elaborate music and much ringing of bells were everywhere to delight the senses. The culminating event involved assembling in a large group or at a public festival where everyone ate sumptuously on generous provisions prepare
d just for the occasion. People created their own entertainment, rich and varied, where all had a part in the festivities. There were several sacred sites that I visited where the spirit of celebration was a delight and feast for the soul. As John O'Donohue, Ireland's best selling poet comments, "real celebration is the opposite of contemporary consumerism. In fact, consumerism gradually kills both the desire and the capacity to celebrate... enough is never, ever enough." It is my hope that remembering traditions with symbol and celebration can restore joy to our hearts and lift our souls to sing and dance again. This is what I tried to capture in imagining an immortal moment in life's festival.