Day 20 - The Fallacy That Is Midnight Mass

Here I am sitting in my car crafting this post in the Home Depot parking lot in the lovely town of Rahway, NJ. What – is that weird? Anyway, I’m trying put some ideas down on paper (or laptop) and suddenly it came to me. Not necessarily a topic with much depth but a topic that has burned me for as long as I can remember.

The Fallacy That Is “Midnight Mass"

It’s another in the long line of church sponsored shams. Back in the day when I was a young and impressionable kid and actually attended church on Christmas Eve it always confused me as to why the hell we’d be at “Midnight Mass” and yet it was 9:00. Is there any rationale behind this scheduling gaffe? Someone please explain. I'm sure all churches do it differently but the fact remains the "Mass" should be at "Midnight" if that's how they want to market it.

I have a feeling I’d have to go straight to the source, The Christmas Marketing Manager, for the proper answer. Maybe he/she is a big college basketball fan and was inspired by the idea of “Midnight Madness”. Entirely possible. And if that were the case I’m willing to bet they’re a Duke fan.

Back to this fallacy I speak of. Religious or not, why would you want to go to church on Christmas Eve? Doesn’t it just get in the way of everything else going on that day? In my religiously-valued opinion churches should close over Christmas. God should recognize your efforts all year and say,

“Hey ya know what, followers? Take a break. Enjoy the family. Have the wine at home. See ya’ next Sunday!”

If I were God I’d do that. But that’s just me.

Happy Holidays