When is Christmas?
That’s not as daft a question as it
may sound. Obviously, Christmas Day is 25th December. But for many people in
our impatient society, Christmas Day is the culmination of Christmas, or at
least the summit before a rapid downhill through Boxing Day and the relief of
taking down the decorations and collapsing in a heap.
In the Church of England the season
of Christmas runs, essentially, from sunset on Christmas Eve until sunset on
5th January, with the season of Epiphany (the Feast of the Epiphany is 6th January)
taking up the baton. The Christmas cycle then carries on until Candlemas, on
2nd February. Many churches will take down most of their decorations now, with
the crib remaining until Candlemas. I think, though I am not certain, that in
the Roman Catholic church the season of Christmas runs until this coming
Sunday, the Baptism of Christ, with the Christmas cycle also lasting a little
longer into the Sundays before Lent. But small variations aside, what both
share in common is that Christmas Day is not the end of the matter but the
dawn.
Does it matter, when and how we
celebrate Christmas? Well, yes and no. I really don’t think that it matters in
terms of when we take down decorations, and even friendly arguments about
whether that should be 5th January or 2nd February tend to miss the point.
But I do think that it matters that
we, collectively, can’t bear to live in the moment. That we rush to bring the
trappings of Christmas into Advent, because it is too stark; that we rush to
put away Christmas, because it is too much; that we look for ways to transform
our dark and dismal January lives with New Year’s Resolutions because we (think
that we) need a New Me. It bothers me that we are, collectively, in such a
rush.
It is still Christmas. Joy and peace
be with you this day.
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