So, I decided to go to the orthodox church for nativity vigil tonight. Partially because I hadn’t ever been to this service and partially because I figured they wouldn’t do the traditional Christmas hymns. I’ve been pretty much completely bah-humbuggy this year and have pretty much ignored Advent, with the intent of avoiding Christmas as much as possible.
I walked into the service and stood behind some other people. I was thinking the service would be fairly long, definitely more than an hour, probably closer to two or three, but wanted to know if it were longer than that, for sure. Finally I walked over to Steve, a (longer term than me, anyway) member and asked “How long is this service.”
He paused and said “Really long.”
Needing a bit more clarification, as I knew that much already, I asked “Yeah, but how long”
Holding up three fingers, he said “Three hours. I think. I mean, Easter vigil is about that long, so I believe it will be about that long.”
So yeah, it was a little over three hours. Three and a half, if you count the post-communion prayers. My clothes smell highly of incense. Gotta say, I really love it.
In other words, I’m finally getting used to the “Christ is Risen/He is and shall be” response and now they’ve gone and changed it to “Christ is Born/Glorify Him” or something.
One final note on the Orthodox service, I was totally wrong about the carols. They were sung. I thought I was going to have a panic attack during them. Ugh. BE NORMAL DANA.
Holy Jesus Snack Cup 