Andy Williams was right. “It’s the most wonderful time of the year” (1). While The Day isn’t till Monday. I’m sure most of us have been celebrating for a while already. Trees and lights start to go up around Thanksgiving, and Christmas music, and of course the ads, have been peppering the airwaves since before that. But it’s really starting in earnest now. My best friend Eric had a virtual Christmas present exchange with his far flung family last night. He said his son-in-law found him an app to help organize it. Tomorrow, those of us blessed with some Norwegian blood will break out the aquavit and gravlax – and for the daring, lutefisk – to celebrate Little Christmas Eve. Then, those lucky Italian Catholics celebrate the ending of Advent’s meat abstinence with their Feast of the Seven Fishes (2). And we all know what happens the day after that. How many of us “yust go nutz” (3)? It can be a pretty frenzied day, as birthday parties often are. Please don’t take my title and tone as sacreligious. Has there ever been a bigger birthday, for crissake? A little letdown after is inevitable, but it shouldn’t be because the party’s over. That silly Christmas carol is right. There really are twelve days of Christmas, each day an established feast day worth celebrating. So after Christmas, it’s like Rodney Crowell sang, with help of his ex-wife Rosanne Cash and smooth-voiced John Paul White: “It ain’t over yet” (4). To help you through it, I’m reposting here the body of a text I posted 3 Christmases ago about those 12 days (5).
“dandy dozen
Merry Christmas to all my friends and whomever happens to stumble on this site! It’s morning as I write this. No presents yet, not even breakfast. Kathy and I sit by the fire, excerpts from the Messiah playing, sipping our orange-juice free mimosas. The nature of the crisis at hand hit me early. Kathy and I have a shoe box full of our favorite Christmas CDs, which lives in the storage room till this wonderful time of year. Between Spotify, WRCJ and WFMT, most of our Christmas music needs have been met by our iTouch. We decided this morning to pull and play our favorites. We’d played a few here and there, but there were a lot we haven’t heard for a year. The pile got pretty big pretty fast and we realized there weren’t going to be enough hours in this day to play even a fraction of them, no matter how late we stayed up. What to do? The thought came, aren’t there 12 days of Christmas? Sure we all know the silly song with the French hens, turtle doves, five gold rings and all, but what about those 12 days? For most of us Americans, it’s back to work on the 26th and that’s that. Maybe a little bargain shopping and some lousy football with a hiccup for New Years, plus still a slowdown at the office, but the post-Christmas hangover wastes no time in arriving. Those of us church goers hear our pastors refer to the Sunday after New Year’s as “Epiphany”, but I’m not sure we emerge knowing what “an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure” we’d just experienced. But if we understand Epiphany, we might begin to understand the bookends of what was once a week and a half of festivities, not just the climax of Christmas we’ve come to accept. Epiphany marks the day the baby Jesus was visited by the Magi (the 3 Wise Men). Not that long ago, each day between Christmas and Epiphany was marked by a feast honoring a saint. Here it is explained (from 5).
The eve of day 12 – Twelfth Night – is still a big deal in England. One big party. Poor and rich often change roles. Shakespeare titled a play about it. Practically speaking, it’s traditional to take your Christmas decorations down after 12th night. We leave ours up to Imbolc (Feb 2nd, a.k.a, Groundhog day (6). It’s all about light, dontcha know. Those Christmas lights sprang from a much older tradition which sought to bring light to the darkest time of the year. By Imbolc, you can perceive that that darkness really is lessening, so the lights can come down.
Some say early Christians appropriated this time of year to celebrate the birth of our Savior in order to co-opt the Pagans, who had a dandy celebration going at the time of the winter solstice called Yule (7). I don’t know how long the Pagans went at it after Yule, but the Christians sure knew how to keep the party going! Falling away from the church means some spiritual losses to be sure, but look what else you’re missing! Kathy and I are looking forward to celebrating the next 12 days to the fullest, including playing all that Christmas music!
Wishing you all a joyous 12 days!”
References
1. Andy Williams – The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year (From The Andy Williams Show). YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73UqDX_quk0
2. Feast of the Seven Fishes. Wikipedia 12/21/23 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feast_of_the_Seven_Fishes
3. I Yust Go Nuts At Christmas – Yogi Yorgesson. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_7coicdXWg
4. Rodney Crowell – “It Ain’t Over Yet (feat. Rosanne Cash & John Paul White)” [Official Video]. New West Records. YouTube https://youtu.be/EFrpzPR6TLY?si=uA0bfDnTUpJD9QQF
5. Christmas Customs and Traditions. The 12 Days of Christmas. https://www.whychristmas.com/customs/12-days-of-christmas
6. Ike B. cross quarter. WordPress 2/1/20. https://theviewfromharbal.com/2020/02/01/cross-quarter/
7. Religions. The Pagan Year. BBC 3/14/06. https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/paganism/holydays/year.shtml
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