Tuesday 28th December 2009
Festive Greetings to the Sessioneers!
We find ourselves in the hiatus which is the middle of the syncretized* English winter festival. It must be one of the most mixed up and muddled festivals of the year. Please note, I do not in any way shape or form advocate ‘Winterval’ or some such silly pseudo-PC term for what is a perfectly respectable and long standing winter event. Christmas is just fine.
Those of us who live in the Northern hemisphere, have to cope with days getting longer and shorter in the annual cycle and it’s nice to know when it reaches the turnaround point so we have something to look forward to. So add together Winter Solstice (Pagan), Dies Natalis Solis Invicta (Roman), Yule (Germanic/Scandinavian) and Christmas and add a touch of Saturnalia and a fair dollop of material commercialism and here we are in the middle of the sales. No matter that Jesus wasn’t born on December 25th (think of it as his official birthday), nor that the calendar shifted by 12 days anyway in 1752. Hoorah for a couple of Bank Holidays! And then there is St Stephen’s day and then the Plough Stots and it’s Easter before you know it.
But what of the sessions?
Well, the Irish session continues to thrive although it hasn’t picked up or held onto new sessioneers as well as hoped. We must keep up a concerted campaign. The regulars had a very enjoyable Christmas meal on the 23rd and many thanks to the staff at the George for everything. The session started a little later than normal because of that at around 9:00 and one new sessioneer with Bodhran was sitting there waiting. Apparently, the previous week he got lost and arrived after closing time.
Lara, our current student-with-fiddle from Indiana (near the Kentucky border) was there for her first English Christmas Dinner with her father. It was a pleasure sharing our cultural differences and enjoying conversation and humour with them both. Sadly, a couple of our party were ill and could not make the meal and session, but I hope they are well now and that we see them in the new year.
There will be no Irish session this week, so back to normal on January 6th which just happens to be Little Christmas in Ireland (Epiphany, Twelfth Night, Old Christmas Day, whatever). Take your decorations down.
The Thursday entertainment has been taking place with the annual carols on the week before Christmas and something happening on Christmas Eve which was unexpected. The Bear must have been heaving! (yes, savour any of the images that you now have in your mind). I haven’t had a report yet of exactly what. Distance, Weather and family prevented me going.
A Happy New Year to all, especially the loyal and regular readers who urge me to keep writing this lunacy, and Good Sessioning in 2010.
*Look it up!