Christmas Continues!
Happy 6th Day of Christmas – yes, Christmas continues. For very many people, it’s back to work in a serious way today. After Christmas and the weekend, it’s a Monday not so different from any other working day. Many folks were back at work last Thursday, the day after Christmas. For Catholic Christians, however, it’s still a holiday (that is, a Holy Day). Today is a Solemnity, in fact, Monday in the Octave of Christmas. Even if nobody else seems to notice, you have every reason to go about your business humming “Gloria in excelsis Deo!”
Eleven years ago, I set out to publish a blog post on every one of the twelve days of Christmas. It was a way of honoring Christmas as a season, not just a one-and-done on December 25th. And the Octave of Christmas isn’t the whole season. The Twelve Days of Christmas, followed by Epiphany on the traditional date of January sixth, isn’t the whole thing either. In fact, the Church’s official Christmas Season extends until the Baptism of The Lord, which is the Sunday after Epiphany, and in some places (specifically, Eastern Europe), the informal celebration continues until the Feast of the Presentation on February 2nd.
The Christmas Season
During his pontificate, Pope St. John Paul II celebrated Christmas until the Presentation, and Pope Benedict XVI did the same. I haven’t heard whether Pope Francis has followed suit. We do so in our home, in keeping with my Lovely Bride’s Polish heritage . . . or, at least, that’s our excuse.
The entire Christmas Season, then, is like a series of ripples of decreasing intensity emanating from the Feast of the Nativity itself on December 25th. Let’s lay it out in detail. Christmas Day is the first day in the Octave of Christmas, a period of eight days, all solemnities (a solemnity is a liturgical feast of the highest rank), culminating in The Solemnity of Mary Mother of God on January 1st. January 2-5 fill out the rest of the Twelve Days, but are not official feast days.
Next, the days between Epiphany (traditionally January 6th, now officially the 2nd Sunday after the Nativity) and the Baptism of Our Lord on the following Sunday are included in the Christmas Season. Other than Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord itself, we observe those days in a much more low-key way. Those of us who just aren’t ready to let go of Christmas can privately follow the Eastern European tradition and continue until February 2nd, but the formal Liturgical Calendar has already moved on.
Christmas Season 2024-2025
Experiencing Salvation History
There are some people who don’t see the point of all this complexity: why not just celebrate Christmas and be done with it? But the Liturgical Calendar is not just about commemorating past events. It’s about experiencing the events of Salvation History in our own lives. Big events require a period of preparation. That’s why we have the Season of Advent. Any of us who have lived in a household expecting a baby know how busy the preparations become in those last few weeks! In a similar way, the excitement and celebration gradually recede after the event, as life slowly returns to a routine. We can’t just switch it on and off in a day or two.
Today, the sixth day in the Octave of Christmas, we’re still in celebration mode. The Christmas candles are burning, the tree is still blazing with lights, and the joyful sounds of Christmas Carols still fill the air. So, Merry Christmas to all!
Featured image top of page: Christ Surrounded by Musician Angels. Altarpiece of Santa Maria la Real de Nájera, by Hans Memling, 1489
Music for Christmas: “Angels We Have Heard on High” from Preston Hollow Presbyterian
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