Erika Hewitt
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wintryminx.bsky.social
Erika Hewitt
@wintryminx.bsky.social
• Unitarian Universalist clergy • feminist • activist • sparklepants ✨• wedding officiant 💒 • hymn & liturgy nerd 🎶 • furious we have to resist That Guy again • she/her • all opinions my own (I do not represent the Mothership) •
Here’s to redeeming or salvaging a frustrating day, hoping that my words of love reach their recipients and are well received. And this reminds me how fun it was, a few years ago, to send Galentine & Palentine cards to a buncha friends! 📮❤️

#lovemail
#spiritualpractice
January 23, 2025 at 12:27 AM
(I used to write a *lot* of thank you notes as a church pastor, and one day a parishioner nervously confessed that she couldn’t read my handwriting! So now I take some extra time to print extra clearly. 😂)
January 23, 2025 at 12:27 AM
and then setting it free in the world. But good Lord: it took me under 10 minutes to write a card that I’ve been holding onto since November! Maybe I was afraid I wouldn’t express myself profoundly enough.
January 23, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Today was a stressful day: my routine was disrupted, and it feels too cold to enjoy my long daily walk. But I was determined to make something good of it. 📬 I just wrote 3 cards, one of which is months overdue. I don’t need or expect a response – this practice is about expressing #gratitude
January 23, 2025 at 12:27 AM
....or PREYING on your downfall. Because as humans, we're inexplicably primed to want the downfall of our neighbors instead of trusting that we're all in this together.
January 12, 2025 at 11:29 PM
FOWH FTW 🙌🏼😉
December 31, 2024 at 1:20 PM
On that note (ha!) I offer you the #HallelujahChorus as performed by Mariachi Sol de Mexico de Jose Hernandez.

Hallelujah, Happy Christmas, and thanks to everyone who joined my passionate journey through #CarolsAndSongs!

(7/fin)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUZA...
Hallelujah Chorus
YouTube video by Mariachi Sol De Mexico De Jose Hernandez - Topic
www.youtube.com
December 25, 2024 at 9:35 PM
It took over a century after its debut for Messiah to migrate permanently to the Christmas end of the calendar, where today, for many people, it forms a cultural/seasonal cornerstone of reverence, wonder, and sheer musical brilliance.

(6/7)
December 25, 2024 at 9:35 PM
to offset the criticism, Handel donated his proceeds from the debut to a hospital and a debtors’ prison in Dublin.

17 years after its debut, Handel attended a Messiah performance in London. He died a week later; his most acclaimed work may have been the last piece of music he heard.

(5/7)
December 25, 2024 at 9:35 PM
Handel was 56 years old, long having made a permanent home in London, and intended his oratorio to be performed at Easter. He debuted it during Lent—on April, 13, 1742—in Dublin.

It was controversial that Handel and Jennens chose theaters—not churches—for Messiah performances;

(4/7)
December 25, 2024 at 9:35 PM
In late summer, Handel composed Messiah in a feverish, 24-day generative streak. A friend who visited Handel during that period found him weeping with emotion. It was after finishing the Hallelujah Chorus that Handel claimed, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself."
December 25, 2024 at 9:35 PM
“When he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt”—was badly in debt after a string of musical failures.

Two things changed musical history: Handel received funding from Dublin charities to write a new work, and received a libretto, from scholar Charles Jensen, focusing on the life of Jesus.

2/7
December 25, 2024 at 9:35 PM
Which style do you prefer? And who else is entranced by the idea of your JOB being to roam around at night singing beneath people's windows?

Tomorrow: #CarolsAndSongs concludes!

(12/fin)
December 24, 2024 at 3:47 PM
...and here's a boisterous, playful version by the very aforementioned musician(s): The Albion Christmas Band.

(11/12)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5Pg...
Past Three O'clock (Live)
YouTube video by The Albion Christmas Band - Topic
www.youtube.com
December 24, 2024 at 3:47 PM
Formal performances of this song—i.e., less boisterous ones—allow Wood’s harmonies to play with each other crisply. Here are two versions: one, a dignified a cappella version by the Choir of Ripon Cathedral...

(10/12)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AP5...
Past Three O'Clock (Arr. for Choir by Charles Wood)
YouTube video by Ripon Cathedral Choir - Topic
www.youtube.com
December 24, 2024 at 3:47 PM
One English musician has opined that “the words are really rubbish” but Past Three O’Clock is “just good fun” because it's “really boisterous.” Personally, I love the words. As you can tell, this carol connects me in time to a tradition that stretches back hundreds of years.

(9/12)
December 24, 2024 at 3:47 PM
BACK TO THE SONG!
Given its tune name, Past Three O’Clock seems to have been part of the London waites’ repertoire. The refrain was published as early as the 17th century—though the words were redrafted by G.R. Woodward, in the late 19th century to fit a rescoring by Charles Wood.

(8/12)
December 24, 2024 at 3:47 PM
The waites served a practical function: besides church bells (and the sun), their singing was the only way for townspeople to know the time. After centuries of service, waites were abolished in 1835—but amateur singers & musicians took up the mantle during the holidays as Christmas waites.

(7/12)
December 24, 2024 at 3:47 PM
I have listened with a hushed delight, and, connecting them with the sacred and joyous occasion, have almost fancied them into another celestial choir, announcing peace and good-will to mankind.”

(6/12)
December 24, 2024 at 3:47 PM
And in the mid-1800s, (American) Washington Irving wrote about his visit to England:

“Even the sound of the Waits, rude as may be their minstrelsy, breaks upon the mid-watches of the winter night with the effect of perfect harmony. As I have been awakened by them in that still and solemn hour…
December 24, 2024 at 3:47 PM
On 16 January 1660, Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary: “I staid up till the bell-man came by with his bell just under my window as I was writing of this very line, and cried, ‘Past one of the clock, and a cold, frosty, windy morning.’”

(4/12)
December 24, 2024 at 3:47 PM
As English towns grew and castles were less used, these waites shifted into civil minstrels—in other words, by around the 15th century, many towns in England had their own town bands. They’d play their instruments throughout the night and wake citizens by playing under windows.

(3/12)
December 24, 2024 at 3:47 PM