Christmas in Lyon - part 2

Last week I wrote about the secular side of Christmas in France, but Christmas is really about Christ! In France, many Catholics honor the birth of Jesus by attending mass on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day. Some churches still honor the tradition of midnight mass, but many these days are opting to hold worship services earlier in the evening. I looked up a few of the prominent Catholic churches in Lyon to find out their plans. Many of them have multiple Christmas services. I counted a total of eight services in a 24-hour period at The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, including a midnight mass on Christmas Eve and a 7:30 am mass on the 25th. (Greg is so happy not to be the priest on duty for that rotation!)

Protestant believers also typically head to church on Christmas Eve. Very few Protestant churches hold a service on Christmas morning, unless Christmas happens to fall on a Sunday. One exception is our friends at Lyon Anglican church; they will have a Christmas day family Communion.  Our church, the International Christian Community of Lyon, is holding a family-friendly Candlelight service at 6 pm (so if you find yourself in Lyon this Christmas, you are welcome to join us!)

After church, French families often gather for a VERY late night feast called the réveillon (stemming from the word for "waking" because the guests stay awake well past midnight). Foods you might find at the réveillon table include rich delicacies such as foie gras and escargot. Our own family's Christmas Eve meal is much less ambitious. For some reason, several years ago we got in the habit of making red and green enchiladas for our Christmas Eve dinner. We plan to do the same this year. Hopefully none of our French neighbors will catch a whiff of the Mexican spices wafting from our apartment - they would think our menu of choice incredibly strange! After dinner we'll get in our PJ's (new pyjamas for the girls are an annual tradition) and turn on "It's a Wonderful Life." We'll probably be heading to bed when the neighbor's réveillons are just getting started.

More than anything this Christmas, I'm looking forward to singing traditional Christmas hymns and listening to the familiar but always fresh story of Jesus' humble birth. I especially look forward to time at the end of our Christmas Eve service where we turn out the electric lights and ignite a candle, then we pass the flame from person to person, watching the light glow brighter as each successive candle is lit. We end our time of worship by singing "Silent Night" by candlelight. It's a contemplative moment, solemn and sacred, as all the stress of the holiday season seems to fall away and the love of God glows in our hearts.

Christmas in Lyon

Maybe it's because we don't watch French TV. Or because we no longer have young kids. But Christmas in France seems less frazzled, frantic, and frenzied than in America. Sure, people still get out and shop for presents, but I don't see the same gluttonous spending-spree mentality amongst the people here. There's no such thing as "Black Friday." Malls don't stay open until midnight (they do, however, open on Sundays, which is a big no-no throughout the rest of the year). Shoppers seem to go casually about their business, strolling along at a leisurely pace, hardly paying attention to the longer lines at the cashier and hoards of people in the streets.

Here in Lyon, nighttime in December feels festive and gay (using, of course, that good old-fashioned definition). Many streets glow with Christmas lights and other leftover decorations from the Fête des Lumières. White flocked Christmas trees in large red pots line our own street. Throughout town, shop windows are often cheerfully decorated with greenery, tinsel, and colorful baubles (often blue, purple, pink and silver rather than red & gold). But sadly, hardly anybody decorates their own apartment balconies. Last year I went through the trouble of stringing lights on our balcony, but without an outdoor plug it was impractical -- we had to leave the windows open to accommodate the extension cord, and it was brutally cold!

Santa is a fairly rare sight in France. Kids can get their photos taken with Père Noël in the big malls, and he makes an annual appearance on a horse-drawn sleigh in the parc de la Tête d'Or, but I haven't seen Santa decorations in homes or stores. Last year we went to Christmas dinner at a family's house in the country, and I didn't see a single lawn display featuring Saint Nick and his eight tiny reindeer. So sad.




Trees, however, are becoming a bigger deal here -- literally. Friends who have been in Lyon a long time said that it used to be that families might set up a very tiny "Charlie Brown" tree on top of a table. But now many grocery stores, marches, and florists in the city carry trees up to 2 meters tall. This week I've seen lots of folks dragging trees down the sidewalks or hoisting one over their shoulders. Even larger trees can be found in countryside cut-your-own tree farms, just like in the US, but for the second year in a row we elected to go with a student-run business that would deliver right to our doorstep -- and it was a bargain, the cheapest price I've seen so far. (No matter that the top of our tree is missing a few branches, it's all good!) The best part is not having to use one of those aggravating Christmas tree stands: the trees here come pre-mounted onto a large section of wood, cut in half so the base is flat and the trunk fits in a hole drilled in the bark.

The one Christmas tradition that the French seem to do even bigger and better than the U.S. is....drum roll...SWEETS! Entire aisles of the supermarkets are taken over by candy displays: crinkly cellophane sacks of Révillons, pyramids of Ferrero Rochers, boxes of Mon Chéri...it's all so good! And the pâtisseries have to keep up too, with all sorts of special Christmas cakes and treats, such as the bûche de Noël, a cake rolled up and decorated to look like a yule log.

No wonder I'm constantly singing "It's the most fattening time of the year!"

Looking back at ICCL's 10th Annual Christmas Carols

Two weeks ago, our small church put on a big event. The International Christian Community of Lyon's 10th annual Christmas Carols service drew a crowd of about 450 to the Temple du Change in Vieux Lyon. It's a fun and festive event which truly kicks off the Christmas season, and is a much-anticipated outing for many English-speaking expats and Anglophiles in Lyon. It's not a passive concert, but instead a chance for the entire congregation to lift their voices together in song. Many traditional hymns are sung such as Joy to the World, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, and my personal favorite, O Holy Night.

We also celebrate our diversity by bringing the German speakers up front to sing "Stille Nacht" (Silent Night), and we do an international Bible reading, this year in 15 different languages! Our emcee, Jim, keeps the tone lighthearted and joyful. The kids get a chance to come up front and ring bells to the tune (loosely) of "Jingle Bells." It's a great action photo opportunity for the moms and dads, and the kids are rewarded for their efforts with a peppermint candy cane.

This year, being the 10th anniversary, we added a special twist. We invited the world-famous Petit Chanteurs de Saint Marc to join us, and they delivered a beautiful mini-concert of Adeste Fideles (O Com, All Ye Faithful in Latin), Gloria, The First Noel, and the well-known French carol "Il est ne, le divin enfant." These young singers mesmerized the audience with each stirring note. It was unforgettable!

We also had an amazing guest speaker this year, Jim Kallam from Church at Charlotte in North Carolina. He delivered the message of God's greatest gift, Jesus Christ -- the light of the world and the hope of the nations. Jim's words were filled with grace and truth and I know the message touched many hearts that night.

As the evening drew to a close, we wrapped up with another annual highlight, the singing of "12 Days of Christmas" which involved the entire congregation standing up according to their birthday month: Januaries during "A Partridge in a Pear Tree," Februaries during "Two Turtle Doves", and so on.

We ended the evening by belting out "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," and then everyone filed to the back of the hall for cookies and clementines before heading out into the crisp winter evening. As we did so, our hearts were a bit merrier and the smiles on our faces were a bit wider, for the true meaning of Christmas had stirred our souls.

Merry Christmas!

Kids lining up to get their bells....

... and performing "Jingle Bells"

International Bible Reading

Germans singing "Stille Nacht" (Silent Night)

Pure Christmas Joy!

The Petit Chanteurs having a good time

Enjoying the Word in song

It was a joyful time, thanks to the leadership of our talented emcee Jim Carlson

Fête des Lumières 2014

Last night our family and about a dozen young adults from our church ventured out for the first night of the annual Fête des Lumières. We had just feasted on generous helpings of warm tartiflette, providing us with lots of energy for the night ahead. The mood was festive and convivial. Thankfully it wasn't too cold nor too crowded.  The Fête is a virtual feast for the senses, and must be experienced to be fully appreciated. So rather than try to describe it with words, I'll let Lindsey's video show you a sample of our evening. Enjoy!