Diary 4: Christmas Choir

I was invited to Christmas Concert by my landowner. Her daughter is a member of one of the big choirs in Vancouver. I sometimes heard her happy singing voice through the ceiling of my basement. She was going to perform on the stage as a member of youth choir.

On the same day, I heard there was big parade downtown to celebrate the days coming close to Christmas; consequently, some streets to the Orpheum Theatre were closed. My landlady said she took Skytrain for the first time in these few months. She usually uses a car. Arriving at the theater, I was surprised to see and enter the inside of the building. It looked proud of European architecture.

Our seats were on the third floor; the landlady said she was sorry because it was far from the stage. She had ordered the seats closer to the stage, but the family tickets seemed to be disadvantageous in the priority. I felt ashamed because I had joked in my mail to say thank for the invitation by writing that I couldn't find her daughter on the stage, I meant, because she might not be the same on the stage as usual. To my embarrassment, actually, we were not able to find her on the stage! I used my camera's enlarging function to find her among more than three hundred singers on the stage. Finally I found her standing near the stairs to take care of children on the stage.

The youth choir of about twenty members including her sang three songs: "Fum,Fum,Fum", "Christmas Lullaby", and "African Noel." It was beautiful sound. She sang impressively in the middle of the front line.  I took videos for her. The choir and chorus were by all generations from small children to senior citizens. The audience seemed to consist of their families, friends, and neighbours. I'm sure that it must be one  of the great events until Christmas as every house in the neighbour decorates the house with colorful lights. I enjoyed again an important part of West American culture.

There were a lot of kids with their parents, but no one made interrupting noises; they were all surprisingly in good manners as listeners. I thought they might get more used to participating in this kind cultural programs in churches than the children in Japan. I took a tour in the theater during the intermission. Kids were running around; I saw more kids in number than I had expected then. I saw a mother telling her child not to touch the mirrors on the walls with his hands.

Between the performances on the stage, the whole ordience stood up and sang Christmas songs such as "The First Nowell" and "See, Amid the Winter's Snow." I only stood up and hummed to the others.It was surprising and a lot of fun. It was a good way to feel religiously united as if we were in a church. It was my first and unusual experience to me. We stood totally six times.

Since moving to West Vancouver, my experience in the Western culture has been getting comperetively deeper.