With Christmas decorations sometimes going up before Thanksgiving, and even Halloween, it may seem unnecessary to prolong Christmas. However, Catholics and many other Christian traditions can extend Christmas into the second week of January.
We do so because the overwhelming and joyful reality of the God’s Word made flesh in Christ Jesus is too large a mystery to ponder in a single day.
The season begins with a week, Christmas Day to New Year’s Day, known as the Octave of Christmas. Each day in the church is celebrated as a little Christmas. Key days within the Octave are Sunday, in which we celebrate the Holy Family of Saints Joseph and Mary of Nazareth, and Jan. 1, in which we celebrate Mary as the Mother of God, through whom the Second Person of the Trinity entered this world as Jesus Christ.
Historically, the “Twelve Days of Christmas” were the intervening days between Christmas Day and the feast of the Epiphany on Jan. 6, on which we celebrate various early public manifestations of Jesus’ divinity. That being said, more than the other manifestations, the Magi bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh capture the Catholic imagination this day. Presently the Twelve Days are not celebrated in the United States.
For most of the U.S., the celebration of the Epiphany has been moved to a Sunday to allow for greater participation by Catholics. But in Latin American cultures, and certainly here in South County, Jan. 6, often known as the Dia de los Reyes Magos, is celebrated as families and friends partake in the pan de rosca, a circular sweet bread covered in candied fruits.
Within the bread are one to three plastic baby Jesuses. Persons whose portion of the bread contains one of these miniature figurines are responsible for feeding the others with tamales at the last echo of the Christmas Season, the Presentation of the Lord, also known as Candlemas or Candelaria.
The Christmas Season ends with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord, which is typically the second Sunday of January. On this day Catholics are reminded of the privilege of being called children of God through our baptisms.
While the Baptism of the Lord is the official end of the Christmas Season, Feb. 2, the 40th day after Christmas, resounds with Christmas themes. Following Jewish Law, Jesus, as a first-born son, was presented by Joseph and Mary in the Jewish Temple on the 40th day after His birth.
This holiday of the Presentation of the Lord is a popular day to bless candles, and for Latinos, to bring their Christ Child statues to the church during Mass, followed by the feast of tamales at home.
So enjoy your Christmas decorations into mid-January! And if you have friends of the Orthodox or other Eastern Christian tradition, they celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7, with the corresponding celebration of their Christmas Season.
Father Michael Hendrickson is the Pastor of St. Mary Parish in Gilroy and an active participant in the Interfaith Clergy Alliance of South County. He can be contacted at mi*******************@ds*.org.
