This year, for me, post-Christmas is a severe cold. I don't have the energy to experience the blues because I'm distracted with some kind of weird virus. What kind of cold starts as a cough? Anyway ... three days later and now I have a runny nose. Isn't that backwards? It's a good excuse for not getting Christmas gifts put away, dealing with the clutter and holiday foods that take over the kitchen counter. All of this only delays the inevitable end of the festive days filled with excited shoppers, Christmas music, smiles and greetings, eggnog and bright and shiny lights. David thought we should sing Christmas Carols in June ... he had the right idea.
The English (and others) handled this stuff pretty well with the twelve days of Christmas -- Christmastide. These days followed Christmas, so the festivities and merrymaking continued, ending with "Twelfth Night," which led right into Epiphany, another feast day! Shakespeare wrote a play with a Twelfth Night as the setting ... David had a leading role in that play back in college, but I can't remember which one. I thought he was a king, but I'm not sure that's even a character. I'm not well-versed in Shakespeare, but I do know it is a comedy, not a tragedy! He was really hunky in his make-up. I'll leave it at that.
My grandfather's birthday was January 5, Twelfth Night -- but we never heard a peep about any such stuff -- but we always observed Epiphany (the next day) when we took our Christmas tree down. I guess more contemporary celebrations whittle it all down to a couple days rather than a dozen. We have to go back to work and back to school -- back to the routines of our overly busy lives nowadays. I bet the post-Christmas blues that some people suffer would be greatly diminished if we would continue our festivities (even while working and going to school, like we do for all of Advent ...) for twelve days. There is a catch, of course. These are holy days and Christmas has become so secularized. The justification would be more difficult, don't you think? According to Wikipedia (your friend and mine), "The first day of Christmas is Christmas day and each day is a feast in memory of a Saint or event associated with the Christmas season."
The days are as follows:
Day 1, December 25: Christmas Day
Day 2, December 26: Feast of Saint Stephen Saint Stephen is considered the first martyr of the Christian Church. This Feast day is mentioned in the carol "Good King Wenceslas". Boxing Day, a non-religious banking holiday occurs on the first weekday following Christmas.
Day 3, December 27: Feast of Saint John the Evangelist
Day 4, December 28: The Feast of the Holy Innocents. The Holy Innocents were the young male children ordered murdered in Bethlehem by King Herod, according to the Gospel of Matthew. The traditional Christmas song "The Coventry Carol" describes this event.
Day 5, December 29: The Feast Day of Saint Thomas Becket.
Day 6, December 30: The Feast of The Holy Family.
Day 7, December 31: The Feast of Saint Sylvester.
Day 8, January 1: Feast of The Holy Circumcision of Jesus, renamed as The Feast Of the Holy Name of Jesus or the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. In middle age Western Europe the Julian calendar (which puts the beginning of the New Year around March 3) was not replaced with The Gregorian calendar (with January the first as the start of the New Year was not adopted in until 1750). The current Catholic Church does not recognize New Year's Day as an official holiday.
Day 9, January 2: Octave day of St. Stephen or The Feast Day of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen. In England, the Lichfield Martyrs are also celebrated on this day.
Day 10, January 3: Feast of Saint John the Apostle or The Most Holy Name of Jesus:
Day 11, January 4: The Octave Day of The Feast of the Holy Innocents or the Feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American Saint.
Day 12, January 5: The Feast of Saint Simon Stylites, the modern church recognizes this as The Feast Day of St. John Neumann.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Days_of_Christmas
See what I mean?
But what about our churches today? Of course not all denominations can agree on which saints can/should be venerated -- but a lot of those listed above are catholic (universal). I bet they could figure out a way. Could we not continue to be festive and show all that good will toward men (women and children are included there, of course) after Christmas -- even when we return to work and school, not unlike how we operate throughout Advent? My church sometimes celebrates Ephiphany. Some years we have a big party, complete with a hunt for a huge yule log, the task of bringing it up out of the woods, the subsequent bonfire and the obligatory King Cake (obligatory because whoever gets the baby Jesus figure in their piece is obligated to provide the cake the following year). In worship it's all about the arrival of the Magi, of course. A holy day. A holiday.
David's family cut off a piece of their Christmas tree trunk each year and rolled it up and packed it away with the Christmas stuff to be used as the following year's yule log. I'm not sure where they burned it all those years they lived in a fifth floor flat in Beirut, but I'm pretty sure they kept one nonetheless. David and I did that once or twice. I can't remember why we quit doing it! (We've always had a fireplace, except for a brief stay in a cave of an apartment in Alexandria.) Perhaps that's something the kids and I can pick-up as a family tradition this Epiphany, when we put the angel back in the attic ...
But back to observing twelve whole days in celebration of Emmanuel. I think I'm pretty correct in stating that the church is no longer the focal point of the family and the community like it was in the Middle Ages ... or even just a few decades ago! Sundays have become play days -- sports days -- days for things other than worship and fellowship with church family. The greater church holds continuous conversations on how to get people back to church. I wonder if intentional festivities of holy days might be a place to start? Festival of this and festival of that. Joy -- rejoicing -- worshipping that God loves us and is a merciful and forgiving God. Of course there's still confession and contrition, but the forgiveness is the big gift that warrants a celebration. Just sayin'.
So it's that time between Christmas and New Years when we sort of sludge through our days. Along about December 30, we perk up again. Maybe we have an invitation or two to a New Years party. Maybe we decide to go skiing for a couple days. Some of us travel after Christmas to have second Christmases with extended family. But even so, after the party horns have been silenced, the hats have been crushed and discarded, the champagne bottles tossed in the trash ... we wake up to a new year that is often marked by a simple return to the old grind. What's new about that? It can be very discouraging to many. But what if, instead, January 2 was another feast day to celebrate Octave day of St. Stephen or The Feast Day of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen or whomever? Maybe we eat leftover pork and sauerkraut from our New Year's dinner -- bring out some straggler Christmas cookies -- have little gifts for everyone? I wonder.
I'm still working on this joy thing. Right now I'm going to take some medicine, blow my nose and try to tidy some of the post-Christmas clutter. I have my pork roast and sauerkraut already for The Feast Of the Holy Name of Jesus, but I'm not prepared for The Feast of the Holy Innocents! What will I do?
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