Did I miss the party memo?
April 21, 2013 11:49 AM Subscribe
My upstairs neighbors are having a party that alternates between loud enthusiastic revelry and liturgical prayer. Any ideas as to what they are celebrating?
I live an an apartment building where the floors are rather thin. This hasn't really been a problem as the upstairs neighbor is not too loud and although you hear the occasional foot steps it's usually pretty quiet. Today has been quite different.
Around 10 a.m. my upstairs neighbor started having a whole bunch of visitors over. It was easy to tell because the volume of chit chat went up as well as the number of feet walking around above us. My husband and I thought it might be a party because it sounded like they just had a number of people over socializing at a somewhat intoxicated brunch.
Around 11 a.m. things quieted down upstairs and it sounded like they were praying in another language. The floors weren't thin enough to discern the syllables and make a language guess, but whatever they were sing was in unison and very modal. The melody seemed liturgical and of a somewhat eastern origin (read: not along the lines of what people associate with Western Civ. religious music post 1100 A.D.).
This eventually gave way to what sounded like more drunken revelry and for the last few hours now it has alternated between sounds of party and prayer. Occasionally it sounds like the prayer is accompanied by repetitive kneeling or sitting in unison.
Does anyone have any idea what kind of event this could be? We are completely unsure at this point. The closest guess we got to was that it's a Ba'hai holiday today, but I'm not sure if that holiday is generally celebrated with wild parties. FWIW, I checked the apartment directory and this person has a very generic American type name, along the lines of Smith.
My husband suggests it sounds frat-like during the partying times. But this doesn't seem to fit with the prayer part. Are there any fraternities or societies that have liturgical sounding musical singing traditions?
I live an an apartment building where the floors are rather thin. This hasn't really been a problem as the upstairs neighbor is not too loud and although you hear the occasional foot steps it's usually pretty quiet. Today has been quite different.
Around 10 a.m. my upstairs neighbor started having a whole bunch of visitors over. It was easy to tell because the volume of chit chat went up as well as the number of feet walking around above us. My husband and I thought it might be a party because it sounded like they just had a number of people over socializing at a somewhat intoxicated brunch.
Around 11 a.m. things quieted down upstairs and it sounded like they were praying in another language. The floors weren't thin enough to discern the syllables and make a language guess, but whatever they were sing was in unison and very modal. The melody seemed liturgical and of a somewhat eastern origin (read: not along the lines of what people associate with Western Civ. religious music post 1100 A.D.).
This eventually gave way to what sounded like more drunken revelry and for the last few hours now it has alternated between sounds of party and prayer. Occasionally it sounds like the prayer is accompanied by repetitive kneeling or sitting in unison.
Does anyone have any idea what kind of event this could be? We are completely unsure at this point. The closest guess we got to was that it's a Ba'hai holiday today, but I'm not sure if that holiday is generally celebrated with wild parties. FWIW, I checked the apartment directory and this person has a very generic American type name, along the lines of Smith.
My husband suggests it sounds frat-like during the partying times. But this doesn't seem to fit with the prayer part. Are there any fraternities or societies that have liturgical sounding musical singing traditions?
Indian Christians having a prayer meeting? They drink and could be mixing alcohol with prayer. They also have anglicized names.
posted by Lucubrator at 12:01 PM on April 21, 2013
posted by Lucubrator at 12:01 PM on April 21, 2013
Some kind of wake?
posted by kestrel251 at 12:04 PM on April 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by kestrel251 at 12:04 PM on April 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
Could they be affiliated with Texas A&M? Or Rastafarians?
posted by steinwald at 12:05 PM on April 21, 2013
posted by steinwald at 12:05 PM on April 21, 2013
Best answer: Home church or house church or--yeah, there's a lot of various things. At that hour, I can't imagine it being anything besides a church service. "Charismatic" is kind of, uh, like drunk but without the alcohol. There's been a lot of adoption of Jewish worship practices and stuff in some of those groups, too, so I'm thinking it would not be entirely impossible to see people praying in Hebrew, but you also get, like, groups with higher populations of immigrants and stuff that would be incorporating their own cultural background, so hard to tell.
A lot of groups like that alternate whose house it's at, so it won't necessarily be every Sunday. The sorts of churches that are small enough to be meeting at somebody's house do sometimes have a much higher degree of "weird" compared to the rest of society than what you think of as "churchy".
posted by Sequence at 12:08 PM on April 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
A lot of groups like that alternate whose house it's at, so it won't necessarily be every Sunday. The sorts of churches that are small enough to be meeting at somebody's house do sometimes have a much higher degree of "weird" compared to the rest of society than what you think of as "churchy".
posted by Sequence at 12:08 PM on April 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
Revival meeting? Speaking in tongues?
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:09 PM on April 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:09 PM on April 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
Ooh, did not realize that today was also another group's religious holiday, so could be that, too. Seriously doubt it's anything secular.
posted by Sequence at 12:10 PM on April 21, 2013
posted by Sequence at 12:10 PM on April 21, 2013
Post-morning-church-service celebration of a baptism or other rite-of-passage event?
posted by erst at 12:11 PM on April 21, 2013
posted by erst at 12:11 PM on April 21, 2013
Response by poster: Keep the ideas coming! The home church info was interesting. I didn't know they adopted other worship practices. This is making me even more curious about finding out what it actually is.
posted by donut_princess at 12:28 PM on April 21, 2013
posted by donut_princess at 12:28 PM on April 21, 2013
Sounds exactly like Hindu, Indian gatherings. Many times we have those type of gatherings and pray with songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARaNRTJPnpg
did it sound anything like this?
posted by rhythm_queen at 12:43 PM on April 21, 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARaNRTJPnpg
did it sound anything like this?
posted by rhythm_queen at 12:43 PM on April 21, 2013
It could very well be a Baha'i thing, as get-togethers can get pretty exciting and lively (eating, dancing, music) even without liquor (I dated a Bahai for five years and was very involved with a lot of events and parties.) Ridvan wouldn't usually be celebrated in the morning, but ... who knows. Maybe look up something in Farsi on youtube and see if the language sounded similar.
Also could be some sort of home church thing. Maybe a very Pentecostal group, getting into the spirit with gusto?
posted by celtalitha at 1:12 PM on April 21, 2013
Also could be some sort of home church thing. Maybe a very Pentecostal group, getting into the spirit with gusto?
posted by celtalitha at 1:12 PM on April 21, 2013
Fascinating. This is perhaps a long-shot, but could it be an normal party full of early-music or ethnic folk-music revivalists?
I've been to events involving Finnish poem singing mixed with drinking and very modern carousing, carried off by secular people who are excited about the music. None have been in private apartments or before 5pm. . . but, the singers must have practiced somewhere ahead of time.
Could also be a college-based cultural association, especially if the "frat-like" comment is driven by being near a big school. Maybe a Knights of Vartan remembrance party or something?
This week includes significant days for both Turkish people and Armenians. . . though, the praying interleaved with socializing thing seems a bit strange, based on very limited experience with both groups.
Do let us know what you find out.
posted by eotvos at 3:21 PM on April 21, 2013
I've been to events involving Finnish poem singing mixed with drinking and very modern carousing, carried off by secular people who are excited about the music. None have been in private apartments or before 5pm. . . but, the singers must have practiced somewhere ahead of time.
Could also be a college-based cultural association, especially if the "frat-like" comment is driven by being near a big school. Maybe a Knights of Vartan remembrance party or something?
This week includes significant days for both Turkish people and Armenians. . . though, the praying interleaved with socializing thing seems a bit strange, based on very limited experience with both groups.
Do let us know what you find out.
posted by eotvos at 3:21 PM on April 21, 2013
it could be a house church with some charismatics praying in tongues and getting drunk in the Spirit. no alcohol is required for that just the Holy Spirit. :) it can get a little crazy. it could also be some eastern christian group or as others have said an indian group.
if you run into them you could always say you enjoyed the music and ask what it was. you just might get invited to join in which could be interesting.
posted by wildflower at 4:10 PM on April 21, 2013 [2 favorites]
if you run into them you could always say you enjoyed the music and ask what it was. you just might get invited to join in which could be interesting.
posted by wildflower at 4:10 PM on April 21, 2013 [2 favorites]
You could just ask. Not like "your loud drunken party sure went on all day, didn't it?!?", but maybe something like "hi, I heard your music yesterday; it was really interesting, I was wondering what kind of music it is?"
posted by easily confused at 5:00 PM on April 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by easily confused at 5:00 PM on April 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
Sri Rama Navami was this weekend, and includes evening celebration and puja (chanted/sung prayer).
posted by orthogonality at 6:48 AM on April 22, 2013
posted by orthogonality at 6:48 AM on April 22, 2013
I have a home church in my apartment building that MetaFilter handily answered a question about for me a year ago. So, it's a thing! Probably not the same as yours, but possible. I get a lot of chanting and yelling and drumming and bell-ringing every Saturday. (I quite enjoy it; it's a very peaceful sound to come drifting in the open window!)
posted by whitneyarner at 7:56 AM on April 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by whitneyarner at 7:56 AM on April 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
Some fraternities and soroities do have slogans, poems, songs etc in other languages, usually latin or greek. It could have been some sort of Founders Day celebration for a group like that.
posted by WeekendJen at 12:06 PM on April 22, 2013
posted by WeekendJen at 12:06 PM on April 22, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
No idea what it actually was, but I'm intrigued.
posted by pont at 11:56 AM on April 21, 2013