Posted on 12/30/2014 7:09:12 AM PST by C19fan
Good article by my friend and fellow LCMSer Mollie Ziegler Hemingway--who, btw, was the person who introduced me to Free Republic back in November of 2000. In this article, she goes into both the religious reasons and the "fun" reasons for thinking of Christmas as the twelve-day season.
For later
We have always saved 3 small gifts and set them aside for giving out on three kings day... or 12th night. I also hide a gold coin in a Buche de Noel or yule log which we eat on three kings day... the person who receives the coin in their piece is King of the year!
Would be nice to celebrate for 12 days up to January 6th. But unrealistic that so many people would have all that time off from work and school and normal everyday activities.
Hard to pull this off after a 30 day orgasm of material acquisition during the Season of Advent. By the day after Christmas everyone is spent in more ways than one.
In my (old) hometown of Fenton, Michigan, in the Nineteen Fifties, they had a Twelfth Night Celebration where all the Christmas trees were collected in a safe part of one of the large city parks; and under the volunteer fire brigade's watchful eye were, were burned. Right out there in the open, with the sanction of the civil authorities!
My parents told us that the practice came from an old, maybe pagan, belief that all of the evil spirits trapped in your home were burned in the event.
Our Mom was the source of that story, she had others.
In our house, Santa brings 3 gifts for each child. All other gifts are from family. The 3 gifts are to tie Santa back to the reason for the season.
For at least the past 25 years, when I hear someone on TV or radio say, “It’s the Christmas season,” during the first half of Dec., I say, “No, it’s the advent season!” I listen to Christmas songs until Jan. 5.
Why is Jan. 6 called Three Kings Day? The Bible doesn’t say the number of wise men who visited Jesus, and the Bible doesn’t say that the wise men were kings. People assume that there were three wise men, since they gave three gifts. My dad (a former ELCA pastor who attends an LCMC church) said that, when he was in seminary, he learned that there were 15-18 wise men.
You obviously have been sadly misinformed as to the Liturgical Calendar.
The American Christmas Season starts immediately after the first low tide after Labor Day, and starts intensifying toward Hall'o'Ween. As the scary yard decorations come down, the very first Christmas Decorations go up, reaching a climax after Thanksgiving, when Christmas Trees appear.
The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are called Insane Frenzy Time (Swahili: KWANZAAAAH!). There is a 1-week lull between Christmas and New Years for gastric recovery and rehab before the New Year's Eve Party. Once all congregants are sober, the Christmas Tree comes down and Valentine's Decorations go up, preparatory to the Easter Bunny decorating schedule.
I hope this has been helpful, as I notice you Lutherans tend to get the decorating schedule wrong.
“Let’s Bring Back The 12 Days Of Christmas”
How about no?
We already have the 40 days of it as it stands now.
30? Heck, it's up to 90 days now. Stores in my area were setting out Christmas stuff in September. But now it's all transforming into Valentine's Day stuff.
You forgot Christmas in July...
I did not forget it! I begin decorating right after Memorial Day. Wait one, isn't the 4th also in July?
Tryin' to confuse me, eh?
Our president is celebrating the 17 days of Christmas...
as he does every year...just wait till Ramadan is
mandatory.
Epiphany or “Little Christmas” falls at a day when Christmas is observed by Orthodox Catholics using the Julian calander. My outside seasonal decoration lights on a creche scene don’t go on until the week of Christmas day and remain lighted till the following Sunday after Epiphany . And when I was a kid our tree wasn’t decorated before Christmas eve.
Commercial interests misplaced the value of the 12 days of Christmas which began on Christmas day not a month before the 25th. I use the no longer observed traditional date Jan 6th to pass out gratuities or small gifts with this card
January 6th
Once Upon a Time and not too long ago
The Twelfth Night Of Christmas
was celebrated with a ball
Begun on the Day of Birth
and the 11 thereafter
Kith and kin were visited
and friends were paid a call
So on this day I pray
in the spirit that this date recalls
The gifts of kings
Let thee Be in spirit of joyous days
and season in bosom remain
while the days ore year
and beyond it wane
Be thine Blessings Great
and misfortunes
thee none befall...LJK
I recorded this and other poems in my website which has a link to my poetry page http://www.theusmat.com/
Rumor has it the POTUS is now a gay Muslim guy from Kenya? I also heard the Pope is a socialist from Argentina?
Probably just bar talk, right?
Heck, I’m all for bringing back the 12 days of Yuletide, The Wild Hunt and the “Yule Father” Odin (the original “Santa Clause”).
Hail the Aesir!
It’s a shame we’ve let retailers set the schedule for our celebration of Christmas. My later father, born in ‘32, remembered a small celebration in his home on Little Christmas, January 6th. They were poor, East Side, tenement Irish.
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