Spent another night at my house. Some of my neighbors have already stopped lighting their decorations. Nonsense! Christmas decorations are to remain lit until the "official" end of Christmas, the Feast of the Presentation, which I think is January 7th...or is it the 8th?* And they are to be left up and lit again on Russian Christmas, which is...somewhat later. I forget.
Did some work from home this morning. Nothing major, just annoying, since the clients driving this work to be done are also on vacation! If stuff wan't crucial enough to get completed in the weeks leading up to Christmas when I was begging and pleading for the final elements that would allow us to complete a project, I don't see how it can be suddenly that much more critical on the days between December 25 and January 1.
Anyway. Off to meet my mom and my sister for an extremely early dinner. Take care!
*No, as dee pointed out to me, I had at least one and possibly two other feastdays in mind. See the comments for details.
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Daryl Sznyter
5 years ago
2 comments:
The Feast of the Presentation is January 1, eight days after Jesus's birth. It was the custom to wait eight days to name a male baby and present him in the Temple then. This may still be a custom among Orthodox Jews.
Epiphany, the Twelfth Day of Christmas, (and the setting of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is January 6. You need to go get some of the blessed chalk and inscribe K+M+B (for the three magi) and the year above the doors of your home for protection from all evils.
On the cellar door of my mother's house I can find traces of these inscriptions from back in the 60's.
I think the feast that the priest mentioned at Midnight Mass (I was half asleep) was the Baptism of Jesus...which, of course, took place 30 years after he was born and is only peripherally related to his birth. So it must be the Epiphany I'm really thinking of.
When I was an altar boy I used to go around on Kolenda with the priest. He would bless houses and write on doorways with chalk (this year would be "20+K+M+B+07") and hand out new parish calendars, and I would collect a buck or five at each house. But that's all in the past. Oh, well...
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