Posted after observing that there are those who don't know when the 12 Days of Christmas are. There is much more material, well presented, about the 12 Days and the song of that title at the site.
Posted on 12/26/2002 1:05:38 PM PST by Monk Dimittis
The Twelve Days of Christmas are probably the most misunderstood part of the church year among Christians who are not part of liturgical church traditions. Contrary to much popular belief, these are not the twelve days before Christmas, but in the Western Church are the twelve days from Christmas until the beginning of Epiphany (January 6th; the 12 days count from December 25th until January 5th).
(Excerpt) Read more at cresourcei.org ...
Posted after observing that there are those who don't know when the 12 Days of Christmas are. There is much more material, well presented, about the 12 Days and the song of that title at the site.
--Indeed it is !!
Right. Saw this (lack of knowledge) in an article posted on FR earlier today. This has been a minor pet peeve for years. Thanks!
Never come across anyone who thinks that! Most folk know that 25th December = first day of Christmas and 6th Jan is 12th day.. after all, that's when Christmas trees are taken down.
1) The church's Christmas, which is the true Christmas and the most important of the three. The Christ Mass is the Festival of the Nativity of Our Lord. It begins (after sunset) on Christmas Eve, December 24, and goes for twelve days, up until the Festival of the Epiphany of Our Lord on January 6.
2) The "folk" Christmas, the customs and traditions that have grown out of the church's Christmas: Santa Claus, gift-giving, Christmas trees, caroling, family get-togethers, etc. The folk Christmas is nice. I like it--as long as it doesn't overshadow the real Christmas.
3) The "pop" Christmas. It is another step removed from the real Christmas. It is a degenerate form of Christmas, a secularized, commercialized "holiday" that is far removed from being a "holy day." It doesn't have anything to do with Christ or his church. The pop Christmas season begins the day after Halloween and ends on December 25. I don't like this Christmas much at all.
I have been able, though, in my previous parish, to save the church's caroling outing (when we go out to the nursing home and the homes of the shut-ins) until the Sunday after Christmas. Most all the other groups "bombard" the nursing home earlier in December, so we could kind of "fill a niche" by coming a couple days after Christmas Day. And we always keep up the Christmas tree until after the last service before January 6.
Of course, the season of Advent is the church's time leading up to the Nativity of Our Lord. It is a season of penitential preparation, and of hope and anticipation for our Lord's coming. Advent always has four Sundays, which works out to it starting on the Sunday closest to November 30 (the festival of St. Andrew).
There is a series of days leading up more directly to Christmas. The "O Antiphons"--seven brief prayers for Christ's coming--are sung starting on December 17 and going for seven days, through December 23. Each of the O Antiphons addresses our Lord with a vocative "O," followed by a different Christological title. These titles, originally written in Latin, have an interesting little twist that emerges at the end of the seven days:
Sapientia, Wisdom
Adonai, i.e., the LORD
Radix, Root (of Jesse)
Clavis, Key (of David)
Oriens, Dayspring
Rex, King (of the Nations)
Emmanuel, i.e., "God with us"
The initial letters, S-A-R-C-O-R-E, don't spell anything. But reverse the order and divide into two words, and you get:
ERO CRAS
Ero cras, in Latin, means, "I will be, tomorrow." And that sentence is not formed until December 23, the day before Christmas Eve. So that is Christ's answer to our prayers for his coming: "Tomorrow, I will be!" Emmanuel, God coming to be with us, in the birth of the Christ child!
not us...we will leave them up til Jan 6th....known as "little Christmas" or "Russian Christmas" or as the symbolic day the Three Kings arrived at the manger....
it is surprising how the culture that we middle aged people grew up on is unknown to so many...
that's is why I say...talk to your kids...explain everything....they are missing so much of the world and its history and its culture because the schools are so limited and rigid ...
I went to Catholic school but I bet it was true for all schools `30 or 40 yrs ago....the teacher would talk and muse about so many subjects ...it didn't matter that it was off topic...the teacher would just talk and talk about all sorts of things and we learned so much just by listening ....
we got a smattering of all religions and languages and of all history and geography....
Ain't that the truth! The current pop culture has declined so far--during my lifetime! (I'm 49)--that I feel like a foreigner from another time and place. The erasure of Christianity and the church's influence from our culture happened little by little, over several decades, but if you compare now to then, the difference is dramatic.
What about 'Christmas' days in the Eastern Orthodox Churches?
I'm so glad you posted that! I was born in Pennsylvania, and my Fathers parents came from Poland.
My Mother said they put up their tree on Christmas Eve and took it down on Three Kings Sunday - which I had always thought was 3 weeks after Christmas!!
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