The Long Christmas
The older I get, the more I enjoy Advent: this time of
anticipation, of preparation, of trying, even if failing, to quiet my soul and
prepare for the King. I’ll admit that it’s gone a little too quickly for my
tastes. Christmas begins one week from today—even earlier if we go by Christmas
Eve services. Can that be right?
I mean, the trees are up, the stockings are hung, the gifts
are bought (though not as yet wrapped). My folks have booked their tickets, the
kissing bough is getting its greens over at the florist, and we’ve even shipped
our Christmas pudding. So yes, on paper, we’re pretty well prepared for Christmas.
But the corollary to Advent—the follow-up to setting aside a season of waiting—is
that we must be prepared for Christmas to abide. This is no flash-in-the-pan
holiday. Ours is the Long Christmas.
I know some folks will be eager to toss out the tree on
December 26th, and I can understand that. I get it. There have been Christmas
specials on television since October, and carols on the radio since
Thanksgiving at the latest. Going by the popular culture, Christmas has been
here for weeks, perhaps months, and we may feel set to bid the clutter of the season
a fond farewell. But that’s because the popular culture does not recognize
Advent, and so thinks that Christmas is over before it’s properly begun.
The birth of Christ has long been a primary feast upon the
Church calendar. Were Christ not born, what would we have to celebrate at
Epiphany, Candlemas, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost and the like? The Incarnation
of God is the bedrock of our faith. Early on, it seems, there was some
disagreement as to when the Nativity of our Lord was best celebrated. The
eastern Church focused on Epiphany, which was a day dedicated to all the ways
in which God revealed Himself in Jesus Christ. Epiphany celebrated Jesus’ birth,
yes, but also the visitation of the Magi, and John’s baptism of Jesus in the
Jordan River.
Christians in the west had a different tradition marking
December 25th as the birth of Jesus Christ—Christmas Day. In recent centuries
all manner of silly stories have emerged about how Christmas was a pagan
holiday dressed up for Church. Baloney! Sure, there were other winter festivals
around, and many of their traditions migrated over to Christmas, but December 25th
was no pagan festival. It was chosen by the western Church for a number of
reasons.
The strongest case was put forth by St. John Chrysostom, who
openly wrote, “Look, Rome has the records of the census found in Luke’s Gospel,
the one that brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem. Come see them for yourself!”
We don’t have these records today, but back in the Fourth Century anyone could’ve
called Chrysostom’s bluff were he making it up. Also in the Fourth Century, a
group of breakaway Christians called Donatists complained that Epiphany was a
recent eastern innovation that distracted from the ancient feast of Christmas
on December 25th.
Furthermore, there was a pair of Jewish traditions that
pointed to December 25th, recalling of course that the early Church was
overwhelmingly Jewish. The first tradition was known as the “integral age,”
this being the belief that particularly holy people died on the anniversary of
their conception. Jesus Christ died on March 25th, the original Good Friday. So
if the tradition of the integral age held, then He must’ve been conceived on
March 25th as well. And nine months after March 25th—well, you can do the math.
The other Jewish tradition began less than two centuries before Jesus, and it
had to do with Hanukkah. A prophecy arose that the Messiah would be born on the
festival of Hanukkah, which began on the 25th of the Hebrew month of Kislev.
And Kislev, as you may have guessed, corresponds to December.
There were other justifications for placing Christmas on
December 25th. Some have calculated the priestly schedule of Zechariah, father
of John the Baptist, as recorded in Luke’s Gospel, and used that to compute
Jesus’ birth. Others have pointed to the Emperor Aurelius, who instituted a
pagan holiday on December 25th some 200 years after Christ in a failed attempt
to smother the existing Christmas holiday. No single piece of evidence seems
terribly strong in and of itself, but put them all together and things start to
get pretty convincing. From a very early date, the western Church insisted that
Jesus was born on Christmas Day.
The compromise between East and West was to combine these
two traditions, that we might have our cake and eat it too. Why not celebrate
both Christmas and Epiphany? Thus was the feast of Christmas extended to 12
days leading up to the night before Epiphany, and Christmas remained 12 days
for centuries. That’s why we have 12 Days of Christmas in the famous song, and
why Scrooge spends 12 days with the Ghost of Christmas Present in Dickens’ Christmas Carol, and even why
Shakespeare released his most famous comedy as a Christmas play upon Twelfth Night. The kings of England
celebrated 12 days of Christmas. George Washington celebrated 12 days of
Christmas. And by heaven, so long as I am your pastor, St. Peter’s will
celebrate 12 days of Christmas. Why should we want to do otherwise?
Of course, many of these days gained special traditions of
their own. The second day of Christmas is the special feast of deacons, since
it commemorates St. Stephen, one of the Church’s first seven deacons and the
Church’s very first martyr. Remember: “Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the
feast of Stephen.” On the third day of Christmas we bless wine and beer in
memory St. John the Evangelist, who miraculously survived poisoned wine. The
fourth day brings us the Childermas, a solemn remembrance of those who have
died young—a part of the Christmas story we often prefer to overlook, but a
very important one. The eighth day of Christmas marks the Naming and
Circumcision of Jesus, since Jewish boys are circumcised at eight days of age.
Oh, and apparently that would be New Year’s Day as well, so remember to wish
folks a “Happy Circumcision!”
And so on and so forth, right up to Twelfth Night and then
Epiphany, the latter of which has come to focus on the Wise Men who brought to
the Christchild gold and frankincense and myrrh. And there we have them: 12
Days of Christmas. So don’t fret if this or that Christmas tradition won’t be
ready by December 25th. There will be plenty of time to make figgy pudding,
hang the kissing bough, build the gingerbread house, watch your favorite holiday
films, or buy Hallmark ornaments for half price. And in truth, we’ll have even
more time this year.
Remember how I said that Christmas remained 12 days for
centuries? That’s true. But more recently, the Church extended Christmas again
not simply to Epiphany but now to the Baptism of our Lord, which falls on the Sunday
after Epiphany. That means it’s not just 12 days anymore; it’s 12 days plus
however many more it takes to get to the next Sunday. This go-around, folks,
that’s 19 days of Christmas.
So take your time this year. Don’t be in any rush. Enjoy
Christmas. Marinate in it. Let the celebration, the story, the presence of our
Lord abide in your house. People always talk about how the Spirit of Christmas
should last all year. That would be great. We can start by letting it last, in
our families and our homes, for 19 days. We’re in for the Long Christmas, my
friends. And that is truly wonderful news.
Happy Advent, brothers and sisters. The King is coming. And He’ll
be here to stay.
In Jesus’ Name. AMEN.
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