How Could Today Be the First Day of Christmas?

Factual Questions
1

Today is December 26th. It is also the first day of Christmas. Allow me to explain…

As many of you already know, and as the Christmas carol says, there are twelve days of Christmas. And as you may know, the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6th, is the twelfth day of Christmas. Now, let’s see how many days we have here: including the 25th there would be 7 days left in December, plus the 6 days in January would make 13 days! But everyone agrees January 6th is the twelfth day (I once read somewhere it is the “twelfth night” too, whatever that means).

So unless my math is wrong today is the First Day of Christmas, even though it is December 26th. But how could today be the first day of Christmas?

(P.S. I checked the archives and someone did bring up a topic on why there are 12 days to Christmas. But I am the first person to bring up the topic by itself of why Dec. 26 would be the first day of Christmas;).)

:slight_smile:

2

My guess is that Christmas Day itself is listed as a Feast Day of some sort on the ecclesiastical calendar (or it’s the last day of the preceding season) and the 26th is the first day of the ecclesiastical season of Christmas.

3

Hmmmm… this site defines the Season of Christmas as

& the Season of Epiphany as

Just to give a completely calendrical summation, here are the seasons, in order, and what their themes are (taken from the same site):
[ul][li]The Season of Advent[/li]December 1, 2002 through December 24, 2002
Theme: Anticipating the Coming of the Lord

[li]The Season of Christmas[/li]December 25, 2002 through January 5, 2003
Theme: Celebrating the Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ

[li]The Season of Epiphany[/li]January 6, 2003 through March 4, 2003
Theme: Jesus’ Manifests Himself as God

[li]The Season of Lent[/li]March 5, 2003 through April 19, 2003
Theme: Retreating into the Wilderness with Jesus

[li]Holy Week[/li]April 13, 2003 through April 19, 2003
Theme: Reenacting the Passion of Our Lord

[li]The Season of Easter[/li]April 20, 2003 through June 8, 2003
Theme: Celebrating the Resurrection of the Lord

[li]The Season of Pentecost[/li]June 8, 2003 through November 29, 2003
Theme: The Church fulfills the Great Commission[/ul]

4

Forgot to put in the conclusion.

Conclusion: The Day of Epiphany is not the 12th day of Christmas, the 5th of January is. The first day of Christmas is Christmas Day.

5

I also believe you were misinformed about Twelfth Night. It is the eve of the Epiphany:

6

Liturgical calenders have varied quite a bit throughout history. The church has been somewhat inconsistant about whether Epiphany is the last day of Christmas, a feast day following the last day of Christmas, or a season begining on the day following the last day of Christmas. (Monty’s source is a little inacurate. The page belongs to a United Methodist church. The United Methodist Church currently regards Epiphany as a feast day following the last day of Christmas, according to the UMC Book of Worship. The days between Epiphany and Lent are “ordinary time.”)

Epiphany is traditionally called the 12th day of Christmas, and the night of Epiphany is traditionally called 12th Night, even though if Epiphany is part of Christmas, it obviously has 13 days/nights, not 12. Here’s my WAG about why. The idea that Christmas has 12 days and that the last night of Christmas is “12th Night” obviously began when Christmas ended before Epiphany. At a different time and/or place, Epiphany became the last day/night, but the term “12th Night” for the Last-night-of-Christmas celebration had already stuck. Further consider that liturgical calenders begin the day at sunset, while civil calenders do not. A celebration occuring on the evening of Jan. 5 could have been seen as taking place either on the 12th night of Christmas according to the civil calender or on on the evening of Epiphany (or 13 night of Christmas) according to the liturgical calender. You can see how things might have gotten confused. Eventually, people remembered that 12th Night was the evening of Epiphany, but forgot about the civil/liturgical difference, and began celebrating on the evening of Jan. 6, which isn’t the 12th night of anything on any calender!

7

Please be so kind as to provide a cite for that, Alan. I made a guess, identified it as such, and then went off and found the information. All I see in your posting is speculation.

8

According to the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, Christmas season begins Dec. 25 and Epiphany season begins January 6. Epiphany is not part of the Christmas season.

So you have 12 days: Dec 25-Jan 5.

This jibes with Monty’s cite but not with Alan’s assertion.