Organ is not "merry"

It being Christmas Eve, our college hosts in the Cathedral a Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols (a "Carol Concert"), very similar in concept to the one conducted annually at King's College in Cambridge, and that for many marks the start of Christmas.

There is organ music before the service begins, and although there will be "sweet singing in the choir" subsequently, what we heard today could hardly be called "merry" organ music. The Organ Scholars were playing excerpts from La Nativité du Seigneur by Olivier Messiaen: loud and interesting, but definitely not merry.

We were fortunate enough to be allocated ticketed seats. Large numbers of the general public queue for hours in order to get in. Here are some of them. I get the impression that everyone gained admission in the end.

Outside the entrance to the cathedral we were entertained by ringers of handbells.

The High Sheriff of Berkshire wore a rather dramatic hat

Here, the candles have been lighted ready for the choir to go into their stalls: a romantic image indeed in the fading winter light (it's now about 15:00 in this photograph)!

When we got home, we were very happy that our son and his wife had safely arrived from San Diego in sunny California to spend Christmas with us.

We later ate the game (pheasant, partridge, venison, wild boar) casserole that I had marinaded for several days and prepared earlier (this casserole forms part of a contentious tradition in our household that I shall not explain here). We washed it down with fairly old, but top condition, Beaune 1er Cru.

You may see further photographs from this day and the surrounding ones in this mini-gallery.

Father Christmas still had much to do, and was late in bed!