I hope those who've listened to the Britten found it as chilling as I do. It's part of a suite he wrote at age 19, so around 1932. Not bad for a teenager.
Actually, to prove I have catholic taste (note the small "c"), I also rather like "Amid the falling snow" from the album Amarantine by Enya. Not remotely of the calibre of the Britten of course, nor as "onomatopoeic".
Though as modern research is strongly suggesting the birth of Jesus was actually in mid-summer, perhaps the Australian music is more appropriate. At least the climate is right! Early Christians wanted to adopt an existing festival and the mid-winter one was chosen. All northern societies celebrated it, albeit under different names and with different significance, but essentially it was to mark the winter solstice and the birth of a new year. It's recently been discovered that Stonehenge was built for the winter solstice, not the summer one as modern quasi-druids like to believe. Then calendar drift moved the date to the present one.
Easter originally came about in a similar way - the spring equinox. The only equinox that wasn't "taken over" is the autumn/fall one, though I have no idea why.
Edited by peterbj7, 18 December 2008 - 11:53 PM.