'Life' has me by the throat at the moment, so blogging isn't high on my to-do list. Right about now, 'supper' is probably the pole star around which my days revolve because it shows up regardless. Despite my focus elsewhere, one of the local television stations' news persons irked me the other night by saying something about the station's "Twelve Days of Christmas" something-or-other with whichever evening it was being the Xth Day of Christmas. Wrong. The twelve days of Christmas do not begin until Christmas.
(I suppose I am extra-irked because if a television station's news staff can't get right something as ubiquitous in our culture as where the twelve days of Christmas fall, how can I trust these reporters with less well-known facets of reporting?)
I realize that Christmas is now more of a secular celebration than a religious one, and that secular celebrations build up to a climax, then move on to the next big (moneymaking) deal. In this view, the twelve days would be a countdown rather than a continuation. The celebration of "Christmas," though, is grounded in Christian religious traditions, even if the winter solstice is the original 'reason for the season.' Therefore, more logically, the 12-day celebration should still follow Christmas, what with the United States being that famous "Christian nation" and all.
In Christian liturgical churches, the church calendars lay out the various times for celebrating holy days and the seasons that follow them. In contrast to the secular view of religious holidays, the holiday/holy day is not the end-day of the season, but rather the beginning. Therefore, Christmas begins Christmastide (which ends, depending on your viewpoint, either on Epiphany, 6 January, or Candlemas, 2 February -- that, like many other dates in Western culture, are muddled with earlier non-Christian celebrations)
CHRISTMAS TO CANDLEMAS IN A CATHOLIC HOME: THE SEASON OF GRACE AND JOY
Christmas is a liturgical season of great joy. It lasts forty days, from December 25 to February 2, during which the birth of Jesus Christ, our Savior, is celebrated as one continuous festival.
The current liturgical season is Advent. Advent is supposed to be a time similar to Lent, a time of spiritual preparation for the coming holiday/holy day, with some practical preparation as well. Secularly, I suppose the preparation concept could include all the cookie-making, light-stringing, and tree-trimming so that Advent could be a natural part of the secular festivities. In thinking about it, I find it curious that the Christmas tree crossed the Atlantic with German immigrants, but the Advent wreath was all but left behind.
(Wikimedia image)
In Germany, Advent wreaths are a popular decoration, even in public places. In stores, you can even buy graduated candles so that you don't end the Advent season with yet one more collection of varying-height purple and pink candles. (For those who don't use an Advent wreath, one candle is lit each week for the four weeks preceding Christmas so that by the time Christmas arrives, the wreath has one very short candle, one sort of short candle, one medium-sized candle, and one tall candle. These candles can later be useful when the power goes out, a 'power'ful event that seems to be a feature of American life rather than German life, so I don't know what German families do with their (usually) pink and purple leftovers.)
But, I'm wandering away from the Twelve Days theme, and confusing it (as an English-derived construction -- think Shakespeare's Twelfth Night) with German traditions. I guess that's an American melting-pot effect.
In any case, the Twelve Days of Christmas follow Christmas, they do not precede it. You'd think that a 'news' (read: 'research') organization would know that.
Now, it's time to keep on keeping up with 'Life.' With luck, this Christmas season I'll get more than one Advent candle burnt (one lit once so far), and maybe even get the outdoor wreath hung up on the front porch rail. If the Christmas spirits smile on me, a tree might even be in the offing.
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