T HE T WELVE D AYS OF C HRISTMAS For many people Christmas is the nal day of the Christmas season. All December Christians have entered into the Christmas rush: shopping, decorating, partying. All in anticipation and build up to December 25th, when all the build up suddenly ends. Christmas often feels too small for this month long preparation. This is a fair assessment, Christmas is the climatic nish to the preparatory season of Advent. If Christmas were really just one day, then Advent would appear to my far too large a season of preparation for such a short time of celebration. Thankfully, Christmas has historically been twelve days long. There was a time when the month long build up was in preparation for a two week long party. Christmas only begins on December 25th and lasts until the feast of Epiphany on January 6th. Epiphany is technically not part of the twelve days of Christmas, but it does function as a bookend that is distinct, yet still connected to Christmas proper. Another name for the twelves days of Christmas is Christmastide, which means the fi fi season of Christmas. In this re ection on Christmastide I will explore three powerful themes have formed around this season: twelve days, life to death and the inversion of the world. These themes all providentially formed in this season. What I mean by providentially is that these three themes were not intentionally built into Christmastide, but came about as a historical “accident.” I will show how the Lord lead the church through these “random” occurrences into a deep and profound church tradition. Twelve Days Christmastide o cially became twelve days long in the sixth century; it was essentially “the x” to a logistical problem. Up until the 500s, the church was split on when the birth of Christ should be celebrated. The dates in question were December 25th and January 6th.1 The church’s solution to this problem was to celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25th and then to celebrate his baptism on January 6th.2 Thus creating a twelve day long Christmastide. What is so interesting is that this solution to a logistical problem created beautiful symbolism. The birth of the Messiah, the king of the Jews is to be celebrated for twelve days. Twelve which is the number of Israel. The number twelve has been associated with the people of God since the twelve sons of Jacob. Jacob fathered twelve sons who’s descendants would comprise the twelve tribes of Israel. The number twelve symbolically points to the people of God as a whole. This even continues into the new covenant with the twelve disciples. Jesus speci cally chose twelve men to be his disciples to make a statement. He was establishing a new Israel, a new people of God. The church, just like Israel is founded on twelve men. Although this may not have been what the church leaders were thinking at the time, Yahweh in his providence made it so that the celebration of the birth of his Son, would last twelve days. One day for each of the tribes. Israel, the twelve tribes, waited years and years for the Messiah to be born, now in Christmas we enter into this story in a beautifully symbolic way, by celebrating the king for twelve days straight. The birth of Christ is calculated based on the death of Christ. Ancients thought that a perfect life was one that ended on the same day as one’s conception. Since Christ died on the Passover this leaves only a few possible dates for his conception. The two most popular dates were March 25th and April 6th. From these proposed conception dates all one has to do is add nine months. If you think Jesus died on March 25th and thus was also conceived on March 25th, then he must have been born nine months later on December 25th. Likewise if Christ died on April 6th then his birthdate would be January 6th. 1 This was chosen instead of celebrating the two events in one single feast. The Orthodox Christians do in fact celebrate Christ’s birth and baptism on the same day, which is January 6th. fi ffi fl fi 2 Life to Death The next providential theme is that of moving from life to death. Christmas is all about the birth of Christ, it is about new life and light that shines forth in the darkness. But, the second day of Christmas (the very next day after Christmas proper) is the feast of the rst martyr Stephen. The Christmas celebration immediately turns to death. This is providential because saint days are always celebrated on the person’s death day. The church did not intentionally put the feast of the rst martyr the day after Christmas, it just happened that way. Thus the twelve days of Christmas have an odd movement of moving from new life almost immediately into death. Another saint who ended up dying in the midst of Christmastide, Thomas Becket, re ected upon this oddity in his nal sermon, he said, Christmas Sermon 1170 Consider also one thing of which you have probably never thought. Not only do we at the feast of Christmas celebrate at once Our Lord's Birth and His Death: but on the next day we celebrate the martyrdom of his rst martyr, the blessed Stephen. Is it an accident, do you think, that the day of the rst martyr follows immediately the day of the Birth of Christ? By no means. Thomas Becket saw this phenomena of history, but did not try to avoid the tension or explain it away, but instead saw the good word that our Lord was speaking through it. He goes on to make a connection between the Eucharist and saint days, Christmas Sermon 1170 Just as we rejoice and mourn at once, in the Birth and Passion of Our Lord; so also, in a smaller gure, we both rejoice and mourn in the death of martyrs. Becket nds it interesting that the celebration of the birth of Christ is a Eucharistic service. For the celebration of the Eucharist is a memorial of Christ’s death. In one single service we both celebrate the Lord’s birth and his death. This connection is important for Jesus himself said that the whole reason he came to earth as a man was to die. It may seem odd to so quickly move from birth to death, but this is why Christ came, he came to die. The fact that Christmas is a Eucharistic service points to this connection. Jesus was born to die. This is also why (although the church did not directly fi fi fi fi fi fl fi fi intend this) there are so many martyr feasts during the twelve days. There are three key martyr feasts: the feast of saint Stephen, the feast of the Holy Innocents and, the feast of Thomas Becket. The twelve days of Christmas have been providentially lled with days of death, martyrs and the death of the innocent. The celebration of birth is brought near to the remembrance of death. But, this is to highlight the deeper truth, that Christ came to die. That God took on human esh because death reigned, tyrants ruled, and sin was rampant. The focus of death and murder in the twelve days is to show why Christ must die. Just as the Christmas service is Eucharistic, thus bringing Christ’s birth and death together, so too do the celebrations that ll the twelve days. By the Lord’s good direction the twelve days have become a profound reminder of not only Christ’s birth, but also of the reason for his incarnation as a whole. The World Inverted The nal theme of Christmastide is the idea of inversion. Christmas itself is an inversion of all expectations. The king of the Jews (and the world) is born, the Messiah has arrived, God himself has taken on esh, but instead of being born in a palace before crowds of people, the Messiah was born in a stable, in a feeding trough, alone in the dark. There were no crowds, there was no palace. The king of the universe is born in humble obscurity. Christmas itself is a celebration of all expectations being turned on their head. The king of the universe comes in frail humanity, hiding his glory. This theme is continued throughout the twelve days particularly in three feasts. The rst feast is one that I have already mentioned, the feast of the Holy Innocents. On this day the church remembers the innocent children that were murdered by king Herod while he searched for Jesus. On this day it is customary to honor the children in the parish, as a means of undoing the evil that Herod commi ed. The whole celebration of the feast is meant to undue or invert his evil deeds. One tradition is to ip all the furniture upside-down and then to let the children decide what will happen on this day. The symbolic ipping of the furniture points to the inverting of evil. Christ is the humble king who comes to overthrow the wicked Herods of the world. Even the means of Jesus’ overthrow of Herod is yet another inversion, for Jesus’ overthrow does not come by the sword, but instead by his willing death. The second feast is the Feast of the Holy Name, also known as the Feast of the Circumcision. This feast is held on January 1st and celebrates the circumcision of Christ. On the eighth day of a Jewish boy’s life he is circumcised, so the feast is appropriately fl fi tt fi fl fl fl fi fi held on the eighth day of Christmas. This feast is also an inversion in that the God of the the seas, the land, the whole world! Now has his own body shaped by a nameless Rabbi. The feast of the Circumcision is one that highlights the extreme way that God has ipped the whole idea of kinship and honor on its head. God who is mighty and great makes himself small and submits himself to the hands of men. The third feast is called the Twelfth Night. This celebration is held on the nal night of the twelve days of Christmas and serves as a transition into Epiphany. Traditionally this feast was celebrated by the whole community switching roles. Li le boys would be made into Bishops, beggars are given royal robes, lords would walk around in peasant clothing, the rich would be made poor and the poor, rich. Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night captures this custom beautifully. The Twelfth Night captures the Christmas theme of inversion, the whole world (for a day) ips itself upside-down. In the incarnation God turned the entire world upside-down. During Christmastide (and especially on the Twelfth Night) the church recognizes this truth. As G.K. Chesterton, commenting on the cruci xion of St. Peter, says, The Poet and the Lunatics We were talking about St. Peter, he said; "you remember that he was cruci ed upside down. I've often fancied his humility was rewarded by seeing in death… the landscape as it really is: with the stars like owers, and the clouds like hills, and all men hanging on the mercy of God. Peter’s reward, in being cruci ed upside-down, is to see the world as it truly is: hanging on the mercy of God. The Twelfth Night o ers the same opportunity to see the world as it really is. For in Christmas the world is nally being brought to right: the rst becomes last and the last rst, the master becomes a servant and the servant a master. tt fi fl fi fi fl fi ff fi fi fl Christmastide trains us to see the world as it is truly meant to be. fi fl universe has his own esh shaped by human hands. The God who shaped and formed