QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Q. What are the 12 Days of Christmas?
We all know the song, ‘On the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me….,’ and although the Partridge and the Pear Tree are the best known of ‘true love’s gifts,’ the carol has become so popular that there are all kinds of ‘re-make’ versions now circulating. My kids got a 12 Days of Canadian Christmas storybook one year, featuring puffins, polar cubs, and hockey players.
It doesn’t take a lot of detective work to assume that the first day of Christmas occurs on December 25th when we celebrate the birthday of Jesus. And you might remember, on January 6th we celebrate Epiphany, the story of the Magi’s visit to baby Jesus (we’ll be celebrating that on Sunday January 7th instead). However, figuring out who is celebrating what, when, it not always an easy task. In some parts of the Christian church, for example, the visit of the Magi is celebrated on December 25th, along with the birth of Jesus and the visit from the shepherds. Epiphany, then, is the celebration of Jesus’ baptism and is considered a more important remembrance than Jesus’ birth. Even December 25th as the date for Christmas is not recognized across the board; in the Armenian church, for example, Jesus’ birth is celebrated on January 6th. It might come as a surprise that for many Christians, Christmas hasn’t even happened yet!
Because our secular world is so intent on celebrating Christmas from the morning after Halloween when Christmas decorations and food can finally go on sale, to the flurry of mall activity on December 24th, counting down each day as “Only X number of Shopping Days left before Christmas!’, we don’t always realize that, in the church, the celebration mostly happens from December 25th onward. The Feast of the Nativity (Christmas Day) and the Feast of Epiphany (January 6th) are both regarded as such important Christian remembrances that the twelve days that separate these two occasions became known as the Twelve Days of Christmas and provided an impetus for linking the two great days with ongoing merry-making. Numerous other saints’ days and remembrances of Jesus’ life occur in the intervening days: St. Stephen’s day on December 26th, the Feast of Holy Innocents on December 29th (the remembering of the Jewish boy babies killed by a jealous King Herod after Jesus’ birth), and the Circumcision of Jesus on January 1st.
The Twelve Days of Christmas can be honoured in many creative and fun ways. Some households light a candle each of the twelve nights, while others give small gifts throughout (although ‘8 maids a milking’ and ’12 drummers drumming’ actually have never been shown to make great gifts, despite what the song says!). There are traditional foods that can be prepared and served throughout, with special attention to marking a time of feasting, of making sure that meals are shared with others with hospitality and gratitude. January 5th, the Twelfth Night, can be the culmination of the lavish and on-going party. It is common, then, to see January 6th as the last of the 12 Days, after which the tree comes down and diets return to more ordinary and restrained fare.
Even that is not the entire story. One of the older traditions of the church extends the Christmas season until February 2nd, at which point a Festival of the Lights is held – Candle Mass. This festival brings Christmas to its final close by blessing the candles which are to be used in the Christian households throughout the year, and then processing through the darkness with this newly-blessed light.