A COLLEGE CHRISTMAS
The college quad was dark and foreboding apart from one tiny bulb that glowed dimly in the porter’s office. Three hundred of us stood, shuffled our feet and made occasional muted comments to friends. Many of us wore the hoodies of the day, a dark blue duffle coat with a college scarf. Since the scarves were mainly for ornamentation with both ends dangling to our waists, they did little to keep us warm.
A bell rang, the sound tinny and muffled, but everyone tensed as the door of the chapel corridor creaked and a hand appeared, palm upwards, either in supplication or to check if it were raining. Then footsteps sounded on the cobbles and figures edged slowly through the opening. No one was recognisable in the darkness until a stooped figure with wide shoulders paused and lifted both hands. He pivoted sideways as two lanterns moved forward and past giving an eerie glow to his face. It was the principal and his wide shoulders were his cape of office. Another two lanterns glittered in the air and I became aware that the choir had softly begun chanting as they moved forward to take up their position.
The four students who carried lanterns on long poles moved to either side of the entrance gate and stood like guardians around the choir who in turn seemed like courtiers protecting the principal. He muttered some thing totally incomprehensible in Latin while the choir master, the only one in white robes, and who looked like a picnicker attacked by flies, lifted his hands and began waving. As ‘O little Town of Bethlehem’ echoed round the stone building I realised he was conducting.
A shiver ran up my body and I thought just how beautiful and magical this ceremony was. The male voices on the still air had lifted the college into another world. It was our own microcosm of tranquillity. Then the first snowflake drifted down and hung suspended in the air as our male voices played with Silent Night. By the time the choir finished their solo verse with “Christ the Saviour is born”, we all had our own powdery white decoration and the lanterns were a twinkle of movement.
Finally the principle mumbled his usual blessing and we turned for the entrance to our accommodation blocks. No one spoke, just the occasional sheepish grin as we shook the snow from our clothes and walked the long corridor. All would change in the main Christmas party soon to begin, but none of us would forget what we’d just experienced.
