Midnight Mass

[Willowswood]

Hi,

Thinking of going to midnight mass on Saturday night, never been before, can anyone tell me what to expect? How long will it go on for?

Thanks and happy Christmas 🎄

About half an hour. Most vicars just want to get to bed as they have to get up and do it again on Christmas day

It depends on the priest... and sometimes they have carols beforehand. I went as a child and it was usually an hour with orange squash and biscuits afterwards.

Depends on the church and priest. Also check what time it’s on. We have 2 churches in our parish (same priest for each church) one will be holding a mass at 8pm the other midnight with carols at 11.30pm.

In my C of E Church it’s 11pm until just after
midnight.

We receive Holy Communion, there’s beautiful readings (about the Nativity) and Carols are sung. We all sing “We wish you a Merry Christmas” at midnight. It’s always a brilliant turn out - many who are there don’t attend year round.

Afterwards there’s mulled wine and mince pies and everyone clears off by 12:20am.

Midnight mass where we are (trad CofE church with robed choir / organist) starts at 11.30, over by just before 12.30.

In the dim and distant past it was the best snd busiest service of the year with loads of drunks turning up after throwing out time. Sadly this doesn't seem to happen any more.

It feels like the start of Christmas officially. But how it is celebrated will depend on the denomination the church belongs to and its style of service. An hour is standard though.

Thanks for replies. It's a traditional church in Wales church, and starts 11.30pm

Midnight Mass is my favourite - I'm not a regular attendee the rest of the year, but it doesn't feel like Christmas until Midnight Mass. Really depends on the denomination/location/population I've found though. The CofE church at my parents is very small and out of town so usually 45mins max. The Catholic Church in a South London location was packed to the rafters and Holy Communion took forever to get through - it also started at 11.30 with carols, mass from midnight, finishing up at almost 1.30! The acoustics were fab for a rendition of Come All Ye Faithful though! CofE in the same area was a nice 1 hour. Enjoy, wherever you go, it's a lovely service to attend. Happy Christmas!

45 minutes at my Church of Scotland, go ever year , home made soup and drinks and mince pies at mine at 10 pm, then we walk down to church. Pre Covid it was always packed but the last year the numbers were really down hope it busy this year it’s really special .

Our Catholic Church will be 30 mins carols then an hour for mass I expect. Can't wait!

If Catholic, thirty minutes of carols beforehand, an hour and a bit for Mass. It might not be around midnight. Our previous parish priest did it at 9.00 (much easier) with the carols at 8.30.

if Anglican, probably 11.15/.30 till 1.00ish.