Maybe ABBA is like the vernacular Mass; that's all I'm saying

Mamma Mia. The scene in question. My video.

I saw the Changing of the Guard at Windsor Castle last weekend. According to the website, that’s when the “Old Guard (the soldiers currently on duty) form up in front of the palace and are relieved by the New Guard which arrives from Wellington Barracks. The New Guard is accompanied by a Band. The ceremony represents a formal handover of responsibilities [and is] a tradition which reaches back to the formation of permanent Royal Guards by Henry VIII.”

In a less traditional move, the band for the ceremony I saw played ABBA’s “Mamma Mia” and “Test Drive” from the How to Train Your Dragon soundtrack.

The watching crowd had been waiting perhaps half an hour when the band struck up ABBA’s 1975 chart-topper. The realization hit us at different moments—I heard a German behind me murmur schön. But it seemed people didn’t know what to think. The result was a nervous, riffling laugh. You’re hearing what I’m hearing, right? Are these guys for real?

It occurs to me that this feeling might be analogous to hearing Catholic Mass in the vernacular instead of Latin. I was born well after the Vatican-II reforms that stripped away much of the ceremony and made Mass more accessible, but I’ve heard strong opinions on the subject. Accessibility is well and good, but may have the long-term effect of undercutting the institution’s impact—not to true believers, but to those in a loosely influenced orbit who need more gravitas to keep them attracted.

As I understand it, the main gripe about moving the Catholic Mass to vernacular language is that if you make it all too accessible, it diminishes the sense of it being out of the ordinary. [1] Adopting the vernacular also implies that your understanding the words is the chief purpose and value of the ceremony, rather than mystical feeling and obedient participation in a transcendent experience.

Perhaps the monarchy is like that. Of course it’s nice not to take itself so seriously. Of course it’s fun to have the band play new things. But maybe the whole premise and purpose of the monarchy takes a hit if the trappings and actions of the institution make us think not of state power personified; not of the head of the literal Church of England; not of the ten centuries of kingly continuity;[2] not of the five centuries that this actual group performed this actual ceremony; and not even an abstract impression of the strictures of tradition and duty……but of a kindly old man who thought it would be nice if his kids and grandkids enjoyed some of the songs that the fancy band plays on his lawn.

Edit (3 July) - The value of traditional forms of worship continues to be extremely important to some—so much so that they broke with the Pope about it.

1 The Milton link (there’s always a Milton link) is that many eminent readers have found his depiction of God too human, and felt he should have followed Dante’s example in depicting a God that is (as CS Lewis put it), “sufficiently awful, mysterious, and vague.”

2 *cough* 1649-1660 *cough*