Friday 24 December 2010

The first Christmas...

...in England for me, that is. In an hour, more or less. I spent my first Christmas away from home last year, but never in England. Strange, as I have been living in this country for more than ten years, on and off. We will celebrate it tomorrow, as proper Englishmen, but I will of course solely miss the tradition of my own country: the celebrations starting at midnight with Minuit Chrétiens (O Holy Night, which is ironic to appreciate as an atheist, but I always suspected it was a republican song disguised as a Christian one), the heavy food eaten very early in the morning, the unwrapping of the presents, the Nativity Scene (another one which one may find strange that I miss, but our Nativity Scene in Chicoutimi is beautiful and artistic and besides I always thought that it was filled with Pagan symbolism), waking up children at midnight... Okay, there are no children to wake up yet/anymore, but still. I guess I am still deeply a cultural Catholic and I live Christmas as such, with the same traditions and icons I identify myself to. Old habits die hard, especially these ones. I want to stay up until Midnight, like I used to not so long ago, to be conscious when Christmas starts.

Anyway, I have decided to put here the picture of the Christmas tree we made back in 2008. It is blurry, but in a way it illustrates my state of mind.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Joyeux Noël!
à vous deux
père

Anonymous said...

Joyeux Noêl M. et Mme Vraie Fiction. La fête est commencée ici au Québec; vous avez bien résumé les traditions catholiques 'culturelles'.
Amitiés.
È

Frankofile said...

Our best wishes for a merry Christmas and a happy New Year

Anonymous said...

What a magical tree! It reminds me of my childhood, and the excited anticipation on the eve of the 24th...hoping that Father Christmas filled our pillowcases with presents, and the wonder of finding the empty glass of milk, and the leftover crumbs from the mince pies that we had left out for him the night before...This picture contains within it all of my childhood Christmas memories. Thank you, and happy Christmas.

Gwen Buchanan said...

the tree is a lovely one.. hope all the things you hope for and wonder about, go the way you wish. Take care.