4 o'clock Vigil service?

[Hare]

I have come across IHTAF before and it stood, in that instance, for "I Hope There's a Future"

Re the "30 Minutes" here is our version this year:

All: It came upon the midnight clear
Welcome and prayer
All: Ding dong! Merrily on high
Reading Isaiah 7:10-14
Choir: Angelus ad Virginem arr Bullard
All: In the bleak midwinter
Reading: Micah 5:1-3
Choir: Il est ne, le Divin nfant arr Rutter
All: Good King Wenceslas arr Jacques
Deacon/People (spoken) Vesper Responsory from Carols For Choirs 2 p.224
All: Silent night
Organ: Interlude "In Splendoribus" (Dom Gregory Murray)

Then into entrance hymn of Midnight Mass

[Nick Baty]

....and the dreaded 30 minutes (which I was told, when I converted to Rome some 34 years ago, was traditional and couldn't be altered!)

I think this dates back to the days when churches were so full that folk would arrive up to an hour early just to get a seat – almost as though they needed entertaining. For us, this is certainly no longer the case and it's unusual to find anyone there much earlier than 15 minutes. So we have a Christmas overture (by yours truly) played by brass ensemble, a warm-up singalong (O Holy Night this year) and then run through the less familiar bits and bobs with the assembly.

[quaeritor]

IHTAF

That's a new one on me, q. Please elucidate.

I've used it before, Musicus - evaded your eagle eye that time! "I Hear Those Angel Feet" - that'd be the ones dancing on the head of that pin!

[quaeritor]

I think this dates back to the days when churches were so full that folk would arrive up to an hour early just to get a seat

That's only partly the case - actually more important was to get the congregation safely in and the doors closed and guarded before the Christmas Eve extension in the pubs - tightly controlled in those days - came to an end at 11.30, and hordes of suddenly devout Catholics heard the distant echoes of forgotten practices and decided to "do" Midnight Mass for old times' sake.

Ah those happy days !

Q

[Nick Baty]

Wouldn't closing the doors be something of a health and safety issue?

[HallamPhil]

As a prelude to our midnight 'Night' Mass I'll play Messiaen's 'Dieu parmi nous' then the choir will sing John Bell's Carol 'Have you heard the noise?' It seemed appropriate after the Messiaen!

[Nick Baty]

I was once told I'd learn to like Messiaen. But I'm still happier with Mariah Carey!

[justMary]

Wouldn't closing the doors be something of a health and safety issue?

Depending on your neighbourhood, and just what particular distant echos the suddenly-devout remember, it may be considerably safer than leaving them open!