The Christmas Season

Merry Christmas! I hope you’re not tired of hearing that already. For many people, the Christmas season seems to end on Christmas Day, but for us as Christians (rather than consumers) it is only just beginning.

The feast of Christmas commemorates an event so important that it rightly takes several days to celebrate. How many days? Well, the answer to that is a little complicated.

Traditionally, big feasts like Christmas and Easter are celebrated intensely for eight straight days, called an “octave.” Within the Christmas Octave, we celebrate a few other important feasts as well: St. Stephen, the deacon and first martyr (Acts 7); St. John the Apostle; the Holy Innocents, who were killed by the jealous King Herod (Mt. 2:13-18); and the Holy Family of Nazareth. The Octave ends on January 1st with the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, which is a Holy Day of Obligation. Truly this is the Holiday Season!

But Christmas still isn’t over on New Year’s Day. You’ve probably heard of the Twelve Days of Christmas. That’s because the Christmas Season continues on through the related feast of Epiphany, which commemorates (among other things) the arrival and adoration of the Magi (Mt. 2:1-12). Epiphany is another big feast day in its own right, and many Eastern Christians celebrate it with just as much solemnity and gift-giving as our celebration of Christmas. There is also a venerable tradition of blessing horses with chalk above the front door on Epiphany - more on that soon!

The days after Epiphany are celebrated like another little octave, concluding with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (Lk. 3:21-22), which commemorates the beginning of our Lord’s public ministry, and with that we will return to the “Green Season” of Ordinary Time. But even as late as February 2nd, we have an “echo” of Christmas in the Feast of the Presentation (Lk. 2:22-40), also known as Candlemas.

I hope you’ll join us as we celebrate all these holidays. And feel free to leave your decorations up a little while longer Wishing you and yours a merry Christmas!