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.
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