In the Middle of Christmas

Who says Christmas is over at midnight December 25th?

The Christmas season begins sometime between the full bellies of turkey and that first trip out to see silver bells (or to shop-you all know who you are). But when does it OFFICIALLY end?

Renassiance times set the standards, I believe. A commercial Santa Clause was yet to exhist, as commercial America was yet to exhist. Yet, lo, people still found a reason to celebrate (awing, isn't it?). How did they celebrate might you ask? Same as us, of course. With food. Feasts upon feasts. Meager to massive. 12 days of feasts! Can you imagine eating Thanksgiving dinner 12 days in a row? (Jenny Craig is dancing at the mere thought, I'm sure.)

And on the Twelth night, they feasted and danced to celebrate Christmas for the final night. And they dressed up. In costumes. Before you start thinking of Halloween, I highly doubt anyone from Scream or Freddy Kruger made an appearance. Happy costumes people, happy costumes.

Twelth night falls on January 5th. (December 25th is day 1, and so on and so forth.) January 6th is the Epiphany/3 Kings Day, and is to be the climax of the holiday season. (Unless of course you are Greek or Russian Orthadox, then it's the 19th, as they follow a different calandar.)

So basically, Christmas ends the morning of January 6th. And so, I choose to leave my tree up until then. I continue to say Merry Christmas. And I continue to remember the reason for the season as others stare gloomingly at credit card bills and wonder the reason behind all the madness.

So, MERRY CHRISTMAS! my friends!

For more information, here's a link that may prove very helpful: http://www.cresourcei.org/cyepiph.html