I’ve been seeing lots of posts recently about that great glory, the Twelve Days of Christmas. I’ve also seen that people are posting now great blogs about the twelve days of Christmas when in fact, they should probably be entitled…Twelve Days before Christmas. Because, uhm, the twelve days of Christmas in the song began on December 26th.
In the middle ages, Christmas Day was a holy day not a feast day. On the day of Christ’s birth, people prayed and meditated. Sometimes people fasted that day or at least didn’t eat meat. The festivities began on the Feast of Saint Stephen the 26th of December and went through to the 6th of January – Epiphany. Epiphany was the day the three Magi came to give gifts to baby Jesus as the story goes. 12 Days of feasting…based upon many old pagan festivals which the church defused by integrating them into the great Christmas festivities.
Times of course have changed…many things have been forgotten and not only the old pagan festivals. Even in America, until around the late 1800s Christmas celebrations were discouraged believe it or not and for many was not considered a holiday at all.
Just thought you’d like to know 😉 and now…for a musical interlude!
And do you have something to share about this wonderful season. Perhaps you know something about the “old” religions and their festivities? I’m a sponge for new knowledge and love to learn more!
Have a nice day…I’m off to put up the Christmas tree!
Bastet and Sekhmet's Library 
I think you mean 6th January Georgia?
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Oh my…I sure did!
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Added a request for knowledge too…how is and was Christmas in your area Michael btw…and thanks for that tip you gave me…I’d actually written January 26th and Decmeber 6th…now go figure why!
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Thanks for Good king Wenceslas, one of my favourite Christmas songs.
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Mine too…used to listen to it when I was a kid and wouldn’t figure out what the Feast of Stephen was…until I came to Italy 🙂
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I prefer the ’12 Pains of Christmas’ version, but I’m Jewish, so that’s more entertaining. 🙂
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ROFL…I’m have to find it…I’m more or lest Buddist Pagan but love a good party…geez 12 days of party ain’t bad! 😉
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There are videos all over Youtube of this song. Here’s one:
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Hmmm interesting link 😉 I’ll go look for it later sounds fun! Unfortunately i’ve got to run off though 😦
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Have fun. 🙂
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Thanks!
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The time before Christmas is known as Advent. It begins four Sundays before Christmas (near the feast of St. Andrew). It is a time of preparation. In churches I have attended in the past, we used an Advent wreath, lighting a candle each Sunday.
The wreath is a circle – it represents the eternity of God. Green represents life and renewal of the Christian – the hope Christians have in Christ for eternal life.
There are five candles in the wreath – four purple and one white in the center. One purple candle is lit each Sunday leading up to Christmas and the white candle is lit on Christmas. Each one of the candles represents something. The first Advent candle is the Candle of Hope. The second one is the Candle of Peace. The third one is the Candle of Love. The fourth one is the Candle of Joy. The fifth one represents the birth of Christ.
When our children were young, we sometimes used an Advent calendar. The calendar had windows that opened. Inside of each window was something related to Christmas. Our calendar had small ornaments of angels, shepherds, tree, star, manger, etc. It started on December 1st and we used it as a way to count down the days to Christmas. Ours had no religious meaning connected with church practices. The one we used came from the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Cool…we used the advent calander and wreath when Sisko was little…I’ll show you his old calendar today in Just a note! Thanks so much for sharing this info, appreciated it 🙂
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