On the Second Day of Christmas

December 26. Boxing Day. The day after Christmas. Calendar Day. Today goes by a lot of names.

For some people - for many of those most fanatical about ramming Christmas down everyone else's throat, and insisting that "Merry Christmas!" is the only acceptable greeting that can be used from the day after Thanksgiving on, December 26 is a day to look at all the Christmas decorations lying about, say "What the...?, and begin to furiously box everything up and put it away, lest someone else notice that they have tackily left signs of Christmas up after the holiday.

By the official reckoning of the Catholic Church (and presumably, the other, younger Christian denominations) December 25 is the start of the Christmas season, not the end of it. Christmas is not considered to officially end until - well, later. The Feast of the Three Kings, or Epiphany, is January 6 and is traditionally considered the end of the season, and takes place twelve days after Christmas - hence the song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas," which many people misinterpret as a countdown to Christmas. Other reckonings for the end of the season include the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus, observed one week after Epiphany on January 13 (although this baptism took place when Jesus was an adult), and the Feast of the Presentation in the Temple, or Candlemas Day, which is February 2, forty days after Christmas.

Then there is, of course, "Russian Christmas," now referred to "Christmas as observed by followers of the Julian calendar." This is January 7, the day after Epiphany. It's traditional in some communities to leave decorations up but lights off from shortly after Christmas, and then turn all the lights on again for Russian Christmas - after which all decorations can be removed.

So don't be in a hurry to undecorate. Enjoy that eggnog, keep looking at the lights, and enjoy the rest of the Christmas season.