Twelfth Night 2026

Precisely what I will be doing this week, ironically enough...

January 5th; the twelfth day of Christmas.  The eve of Epiphany. (So many Eves!)

The liturginal season of epiphany follows Christmas.  That season begins on January 6th, and commemorates the arrival of the Magi following the star to worship the Christchild. "Epiphany" comes from the Greek word "epiphaneia," which my Bauer (Greek lexicon) translates as "appearance", with the intransitive verb form "to show." Interestingly, the English word was so associated with the church that as recently as some 20 years ago the OED entry for the word still gave a first definition as the festival on January 6th, commemorating the visit of the Magi, and the second definition "A manifestation or appearance of some divine or superhuman being."

So it has almost always been a "religious" word in English.

Interestingly, too, the Greek word ("epiphaneia") only appears in the letters of the New Testament, and once in the Gospels: in Luke 1:79.

To shine on those sitting in darkness, in the shadow of death, to guide our feet to the way of peace.

The last "verse" of the song of Zechariah, the "Benedictus."

One can make a lot of idle speculation of all of this. Epiphany is actually at the heart of Christianity, and causes the constant friction Christianity has had with Greek rationalism ab initio.  Greek epistemology, via Aristotle, was based on the idea that knowledge was "discovered" from the natural world (so for centuries those we now call "scientists" were referred to as "natural philosophers"). Plato's epistemology is often considered to be different, but the difference is really only in type, not in kind. For Socrates knowledge came, not from the "illusory" world, but from the "real" soul, and the memories recovered there via the instruments of the illusory world. Either way, though, the most important knowledge is "discovered" by the activity of the subject.

Hebraic epistemology, on the other hand, and such as it was, centered on revelation, on the revealing of knowledge from the source of all things: the Creator.

This is not a mere academic concern. Much has been made about Paul's writings, and how they are less valid than the Gospels because Paul never knew Jesus (neither did the Gospel writers, most likely), and mentions little about the life of Jesus, and nothing about his teachings, but claims authority based on his "revelation."

"for surely you have already heard of the commission of God's grace that was given me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words..." --Ephesians 3:2-3.

Revelation, for many in Paul's audience, was grounds enough for a claim to authority, one that would then be tested against the "proven" revelation of the Scriptures. To his Gentile audience, Paul would then appeal to a different kind of knowledge; but this brings us to Matthew, and the story of the Magi.

The story itself is really quite simple. A lot of traditions have grown up around it, to the point we are convinced Matthew mentions three wise men (he only mentions three gifts), and that the star "led" them to the stall (that's Luke, by the way) in Bethlehem, all the way from "the East." (The star directs them to the Holy Family after they get as far as Herod.) In fact, it's the traditions around Matthew that have led to speculations about whether the star was a nova (Johannes Kepler's theory), a comet (Halley's?); or even a planetary conjunction. I remember attending a presentation on the “Star of Bethlehem” at a planetarium, so there’s still a modern effort to explain it scientifically. Which shows, in part, the pervasiveness of Greek epistemology. Or maybe it's just a "human tendency." But, as Yeats asked, how can you know the dancer from the dance?

Back to Matthew: First, the star doesn't move until the end of the story. What the Magi report to Herod is that they have seen the new king's star "at its rising," and have come to pay him homage. A bit of Greek epistemology, I think, intruding into Matthew's Jewish world. Nature reveals a truth Herod's scholars have missed, until it is pointed out to them. Of course, creation responds to the creator, so Matthew is not going too far off the reservation.

Still, the Magi don't know everything, and have to rely on the Holy Scriptures for final directions. It is only then that the star "moves" and guides them until it stands still over the spot where the child lay. Which may simply mean it brought them at night (a powerfully metaphorical scene, that; the light shining in darkness.) to the home of the Holy Family. Remember, this is Matthew's nativity: no shepherds, no angels in the sky, no census to drag them to a manger. They live in Bethlehem. Why do I insist on the distinction? Because Matthew tells us Herod ordered the death of all males 2 years old and younger, based on what the Magi had told him. So "lay" doesn't mean an infant unable to sit up. (A point emphasized in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew: that the flight into Egypt takes place two years after the birth in the cave. “And when the second year was past, Magi came from the east to Jerusalem, bringing great gifts." Chapter 16, Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. I find these small details fascinating.)

What, then, is the Epiphany? Traditionally, it is the revealing of Jesus to the Gentiles. Perhaps there is even a bit of unintended bias involved in it, as most of the early church "fathers" were primarily Greek in their epistemology, and sympathetic to a story that gave them an opportunity to "see" the Christchild in signs available to those without knowledge of the Scriptures, but also signs that required them to come to the Scriptures for full understanding. Certainly Augustine and Aquinas would find that a comforting tale.

But it is also the crucial story for Christians, a much more important story than simply the chance to wear coloured robes and lead a camel through the church. It is the story of how we know what we know, and where our knowledge truly comes from. It is not a story with an answer, however. As T.S. Eliot intuited, it is a story that only points in a direction.

A story worthy of more meditation and consideration than we are wont to give it.

And besides, Twelfth Night was always the occasion for a final Christmas party! Too bad the woke mob of Puritans took all that away…

The end of the story in which they flee from Herod to become illegal aliens in the United States of the area is what resonates most for me. Jesus, Mary and Joseph as the aliens who Mike Johnson and the rest of those Republican-fascists want to die on razor wire in the river.

That’s a comment from a few years ago. Sadly, the situation is little changed.

And the people say: “Amen!”

St. Stephen's Day 2025

St. Stephen's Day commemorates Stephen, the first martyr of the church:

54 When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. 55 But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 57 But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. 58 Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.  (Acts 7:54-60)

We remember this, if at all, because of the song:

Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even;

Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight,
Gath'ring winter fuel.

'Hither, page, and stand by me,
If thou know'st it, telling
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?'

'Sire, he lives a good league hence,
Underneath the mountain,
Right against the forest fence,
By Saint Agnes' fountain.'

'Bring me flesh and bring me wine,
Bring me pine logs hither,
Thou and I will see him dine
When we bear them thither.'

Page and monarch forth they went,
Forth they went together,
Through the rude wind's wild lament
And the bitter weather.

'Sire, the night is darker now
And the wind blows stronger;
Fails my heart, I know not how,
I can go no longer.'

'Mark my footsteps, good my page,
Tread thou in them boldly:
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly.'

In his master's steps he trod,
Where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed.

Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing.

Which, if turns out, was written in 1853 to a 13th century tune.

The carol was written for the Feast of St Stephen, better known as Boxing Day. And it celebrates the long tradition of charitable giving on the Second Day of Christmas.

That "long tradition" is something else we've lost in America, thanks to the Puritans who despised Christmas and all traditions surrounding it.  As for Wenceslaus, he had a rough time of it:

Duke, martyr, and patron of Bohemia, born probably 903; died at Alt-Bunzlau, 28 September, 935.

His parents were Duke Wratislaw, a Christian, and Dragomir, a heathen. He received a good Christian education from his grandmother (St. Ludmilla) and at Budweis. After the death of Wratislaw, Dragomir, acting as regent, opposed Christianity, and Wenceslaus, being urged by the people, took the reins of government. He placed his duchy under the protection of Germany, introduced German priests, and favoured the Latin rite instead of the old Slavic, which had gone into disuse in many places for want of priests. Wenceslaus had taken the vow of virginity and was known for his virtues. The Emperor Otto I conferred on him the regal dignity and title. For religious and national motives, and at the instigation of Dragomir, Wenceslaus was murdered by his brother Boleslaw. The body, hacked to pieces, was buried at the place of murder, but three years later Boleslaw, having repented of his deed, ordered its translation to the Church of St. Vitus in Prague. The gathering of his relics is noted in the calendars on 27 June, their translation on 4 March; his feast is celebrated on 28 September.

There's a surprising amount of death on the Christian calendar after the celebration of the birth of the Christ-child.  It's almost a reminder that "peace on earth, goodwill toward" all, is not so much a gift as a hope that we have some part in.  But our part is active, not just passive.

'Mark my footsteps, good my page,
Tread thou in them boldly:
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly.'

Christmas Eve 2025

For my money, the best Xmas Eve service is Lessons and Carols. Preferably in an English stone chapel, for the acoustics and the accents (the English accents really are the best for this. The enunciation alone is peerless. I remember struggling with enunciation in choir in elementary school. I still envy English choirs.) Call it a weakness. I can’t offer that, but I can offer this, from the E&R Hymnal.

I. Organ Prelude

II. Adeste Fidelis

III. Invocation

IV. Gloria, Mozart

V. Hymn

VI. Scripture St. Luke 1:5-45

THERE was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 7 And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.

8 And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course,

9 According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. 11 And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. 14 And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. 15 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. 16 And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. 17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

18 And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. 19 And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings. 20 And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.

21 And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple. 22 And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless. 23 And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house.

24 And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, 25 Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.

26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. 29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. 30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. 31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. 34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? 35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 36 And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing shall be impossible. 38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

39 And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda; 40 And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth. 41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: 42 And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. 43 And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. 45 And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

VII. Magnificat (St. Luke I:46-55)

And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,

47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

48 For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

49 For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.

50 And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.

51 He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

52 He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.

53 He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.

54 He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy;

55 As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.

VIII. Scripture St. Luke 1:56-67

And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house.

57 Now Elisabeth's full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son. 58 And her neighbours and her cousins heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her.

59 And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father. 60 And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he shall be called John. 61 And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. 62 And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called. 63 And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all. 64 And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God. 65 And fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judaea. 66 And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him.

67 And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying

IX. Benedictus (St. Luke 1:68-79)

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,

69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;

70 As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:

71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;

72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;

73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,

74 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,

75 In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.

76 And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;

77 To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,

78 Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,

79 To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

X. Scripture St. Luke 1: 80; 2: 1-9

And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. 2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) 3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) 5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. 6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

XI. Annunciato Angeli (St. Luke 2:10-12)

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

XII. Scripture St. Luke 2:13

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

XIII. Gloria (St. Luke 2: 14)

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

XIV. Scripture St. Luke 2:15-28

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. 16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. 18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

21 And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

22 And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; 23 (As it is written in the law of the LORD, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;) 24 And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.

25 And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. 26 And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ. 27 And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, 28 Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,

XV. Nunc Dimmitis (St. Luke 2:29-32)

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:

30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,

31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;

32 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

VI. Scripture St. Luke 2:33-40

And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him. 34 And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; 35 (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

36 And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; 37 And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. 38 And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.

39 And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth. 40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

XVII. Gloria Patri

XVIII. Apostle's Creed

XIX. Collect and Festival Prayer

XX. Hymn

XXI. Epistle

XXII. Offertory

XXIII. Lord's Prayer

XXIV. Te Deum Laudamus

XXV. Benediction

XXVI. Postlude

I love the purity of this service; the simplicity and completeness of it. This is how it’s presented in the old E&R Hymnal, so everyone in the pews could simply follow along. It chapters 1 and 2 of the Gospel of Luke, complete and unabridged. There’s nothing to stop you from changing the translation from the King James; it’s the complete 2 chapters that matters. Liturgically this is everything from Advent to Candlemas, excluding only Epiphany and the Holy Innocents, but that’s Matthew, after all. There’s room for hymns and prayers, and what more do you want?

 I have never thought of Christmas Eve as a time for a sermon.  Putting the sermon at the center of every worship service is a very Protestant idea, but even Protestants love the Service of Lessons and Carols of the Anglican Communion, and it eschews a sermon in favor of almost sola scriptura.  And there's the Lutheran v. Reformed split in Protestantism all over again:  the emphasis on liturgy in worship, v. the emphasis on the intellectual presence of God's word.  I stand uneasily with a leg in both camps, and whenever I led a Christmas Eve service I found it hard at first, and then easier later, to leave the sermon out.  But tonight....

This is what we have stayed awake for; and probably we will be asleep again when it happens.  This is what we were supposed to go out into the dark for; and probably we will stay with the sheep and attribute the angel's song to too much wine and too many late nights.  We will stay in and stare at the lights on in our house rather than at the lights in God's sky, and we will miss the notice, busy as we will be worshiping the work of our own hands.  Even if we saw the star, even if we recognized it, would we set out, leave everything behind, find out what it meant, discover the new king, we who don't believe in kings at all anymore?  Would we fall down and worship, would we seek the home in Bethlehem, the feeding trough in the home invaded by smelly shepherds coming late at night to tell us what they heard, sounding drunk and foolish and illiterate and not at all the right sort of people to be there.

Would we be the right sort of people?  Would we feel comfortable with the peasants in Bethlehem?  Would we wonder if we should have brought a gift, standing with the magi and their treasures?  Or would we just stay home, and stay asleep while wide awake.  If Joseph had not slept, would he have dreamed?  If we dreamed like Joseph, would we listen?  Or sleep in later that morning?

Christmas was once a public spectacle.  It still is for some churches:  word of the birth of the Christchild, of the first miracle of Christianity, is whispered from worshiper to worshiper at midnight.  Do we even bother to go out at midnight?  Isn't it too late, too cold, too much trouble?  We know how the service ends, do we really need to see it again?  Do we go to church on Christmas Day, even if Christmas comes on a Sunday?  Or do we stay home?  Isn't staying home easier?  Isn't staying asleep while wide awake easier still?

This time, for this occasion, we should wake up!  We should be fully awake!  We should run to the manger for the chance to see.  We should join our friends, not just our family, in worship and praise!  Christmas was once a public event, a spectacle, even.  The Puritans in England and then New England condemned it because it was kept in drunkenness and revelry, but at least it was still kept publicly!  Today Christmas is a family affair, a private matter, set around a tree and decorated with wrapping paper, or it is a failure and we despair.  Christmas is a time to be sad that you are alone, when the message of the gospels is that you are not alone, that none of us are alone, that each of us is our brother's keeper, our sister's friend, that there is nothing we need more surely and completely than each other.  What madness is it that we divide ourselves into units at this very time of year when we should be opening our doors to everyone, playing host to the world as we like to think we would have hosted the Holy Family so many centuries ago? It is Los Posados played all over again, a metaphor for our times.  We are all inn keepers, and none of us have any room for those we don't know.

So this Christmas take joy, and let your spirit walk out among your fellow men, and take the spirit and the season and even the reason for the season out to those you don't know, out to those you don't see, out to those whose cries you never hear.  Make this a Christmas you will remember, by remembering them.  Honor the journeys of Advent and Christmas, of the Holy Family, of the Magi, of the shepherds, by making a journey of your own.  It will take you to a strange and new and wondrous place.  Glory to God in the highest!

Amen.

A Christmas Story for Advent

 A Christmas Story, by Katharine Anne Porter

The story is at the link, in Google docs. I just read it in a Library of America collection of American Christmas stories. It’s more poignant as now I find out the story is true, the little girl was Porter’s niece. And she died aged 5 and a half.

Which almost changes my response to the story; but if I calculate correctly from Porter’s note, this memory dates from 1917. Whether the author embellished her own thoughts about Christmas in 1947, or reports them accurately from 1917, they are a window into what the “smart set” thought about the subject. Our misconceptions and ignorance are rooted in the past, and in American history. There’s very little in this memoir that isn’t straight from the pen of Increase Mather, although I’m sure Ms. Porter and the “smart set” would loathe the connection.

Increase Mather is why we still think Christmas has its deepest roots in paganism (and one of the few topics left where we think we can use that term as a pejorative). The Puritans weren’t named because they tried to live pure lives, but because they wanted to “purify” Christianity. That meant, especially, purging it of anything connected to the Roman Catholic Church. Especially the Christ Mass, which they rightly pointed out was where the word “Christmas” comes from. Increase Mather is also the reason we think any connection between Christmas and “paganism” brings all of Christianity crashing down like a house of cards. 🃏 

Yeah. Nope. Mather wanted that to happen, so it would leave Puritanism standing. People have been falling for it ever since.

So everything about Christmas celebrations is pagan. Except it isn’t. Druids added nothing to the traditions of the season. Yule logs came to England probably through the Vikings, not the native Druids (you don’t burn what you worship). Santa Claus is St. Nicholas, not some Germanic figure haunting the Black Forest. The trees of Druidic worship have nothing to do with Xmas trees. 🎄 Those descend from the Paradeisbaum of German morality plays, and didn’t get to England until Victoria was on the throne, and her husband Albert brought the idea from Germany. Not too many influential Druids in Victorian England. (I’ll just point out Dickens never mentions a Xmas tree 🎄in any of his Xmas stories.The idea took time to take hold.)

I love the mention of the infancy stories of Jesus. The cherry tree story is probably medieval in origin (I don’t think cherry trees are native to the region where either the canonical or apocryphal gospels were written). But the rainbow bridge story is from an infancy gospel. The original is actually much grimmer than Porter’s version.

She also betrays the Renaissance bias toward the so-called “Middle Ages.” Since the Renaissance, Europeans and their descendants have prided themselves on not being so benighted and superstitious as in those “dark” centuries. Not only is that historically ignorant, but tell me how “enlightened” MAGA is today. Or corporate leaders and “tech bros,” for that matter. Or what was not dark about most of the 20th century; as well as the 19th, for anyone who wasn’t a white European/American; and for a lot of them, as well.

But I’m wandering. This story, most of it anyway, gives me reason to point out that the more things change, the more they remain the same. And what passes for knowledge is more often ignorance and bile, accepted as wisdom (which should sound very familiar). That is especially pointed in light of the story’s ending, and the knowledge that little girl never got to explain Santa Claus to her mother.

That makes the story worth reading, on its own. 🎅

American Xmas

Let's get this out of the way.  Not my first rodeo (or post of this), but can't hurt to make it a "tradition."

First, Christmas as we know it in America didn't really get started until the 1820's. It wasn't widely celebrated until the 1860's, and didn't become an official national holiday until 1870. So the "observance" of it (whatever that means) in America is not all that old. (For a bit of perspective, A Christmas Carol was published in 1843, and many scholars today attribute the "revival" of Christmas celebrations in England to Dickens). And from almost the moment the holiday was observed as a holiday, it was connected to commerce. So the connection between Christmas and shopping, in America, is as old as Christmas in America itself.

The other matter is:  there was no single "church" in America (still isn't).  Christmas in Europe came directly from Rome and really wasn't widespread there until the 11th century (another story entirely), so most of what we think of as "traditional Christmas" is from medieval Europe (not that there's anything wrong with that!), and a lot of it in this country traces back to Tudor England.

We'll get to that.

The first important point is that Christmas didn't enter this country via the Roman Catholics (who gave us the word, after all).  Christmas was banned by the Puritans, who pretty much hated it.  But what they hated was not what Scrooge hated:  they didn't hate Christmas trees (that didn't show up until the 19th century here, anyway) or greens and garland, or even Santa Claus.  The Puritans hated the raucous nature of Christmas; oh, and that the word itself referred to the "Christ Mass," which was much too "Romish" (their word) to tolerate in the New World.

But I need to put that in context, so bear with me a moment.  As I said, most of the celebrations of Christmas we have today (in America, anyway) have roots in Tudor England and the court of Henry VIII.  There was gift giving even then, but gift giving was engaged in only among the peerage, and  Henry expected the best gifts to come to him. He was rather how you imagine Donald Trump to be on Christmas morning: his gifts to others are small, but he expects to receive large.  Gifting to family and friends was far in the future from Henry; adult to child giving further away still. Today Christmas is for children, first and foremost. The root of that is one I'm interested in tracing.

Henry’s Christmas celebrations also lasted for 12 days and included many feasts (mostly because the food was available and food storage almost nonexistent. Use it or lose it was the rule for much of Europe for centuries). It included the “Lord of Misrule,” usually a courtier given license to lead the drinking and carousing and general carrying on. That doesn’t reach back to Rome, either. But Puritans in America, like Increase Mather, tried to argue that it did.

In the Apostolical times the Feast of the Nativity was not observed....It can never be proved that Christ was born on December 25....The New Testament allows of no stated Holy-Day but the Lords-day...It was in compliance with the Pagan saturnalia that Christmas Holy-dayes were first invented. The manner of Christmas-keeping, as generally observed, is highly dishonorable to the name of Christ.

--Increase Mather, 1687.  

“If it had been the will of God that the several acts of Christ should have been celebrated with several solemnities, the Holy Ghost would have made known to us the day of his nativity, circumcision, presentation in the temple, baptism, transfiguration, and the like.” . . . . “This opinion of Christ’s nativity on the 25th day of December was bred at Rome.”

Also Increase Mather.

He's not wrong about that date for Christmas Day.  It was established by Rome. But his connection of Christmas to Saturnalia is where many an armchair historian and scholar has determined that's exactly what history says (it isn't.)  The salient point for us is that Christmas in America had little or nothing to do with the Church (or any church), and a great deal more to do with commerce.  I can explain that rather simply (this isn't a lecture, after all), by pointing to the figure of Santa Claus.

Take it as accurate the name “Santa Claus” from from the Danish figure Sinterklaas, who in turn comes from St. Nicholas (whose feast day is Dec. 6; we'll get there, too).  I have a picture of Sinterklaas, and it hardly resembles the figure of Clement Moore, Thomas Nast, or Haddon Sondblom (the artist of the '50's and '60's Coca-Cola Santas of my childhood.)  Sinterklass is depicted astride a regal white horse, bedecked with golden bridle and all the trimmings, as it flys through the sky (sans wings, not unlike the reindeer).  Sinterklaas sits regally and proud in the saddle, a tall, lean man wearing a Bishop's mitre and carrying a golden crozier.  Hardly the "jolly old elf" Moore says he saw in his living room. But Sinterklaas is a Catholic figure, a saint and the very picture of a Prince of the Church.  Santa Claus is a creature of mythology ("elf") who comes as a kind and trustworthy peddler, taking care of  Christmas for Mom and Dad and (especially) the kids.  Who are presumed to be "good" without having to prove it (post-Romanticism has been good for children, by and large). In the latest very American iteration, toy stores in "Red One" (the newest Xmas movie about Santa) all have "portals" to the North Pole, the better to deliver the toys which are provided to the children.  Or...something.  It's all about commerce, anyway, which is hardly what Sinterklaas was about.

Our American Christmas, in brief, was never about Advent and scriptures and taking care of the poor, which is one of the lessons of the Christchild being born in a feeding trough ("manger" is the nicer euphemism).  Although now we make the former saint kneel beside the Babe,  in tacit recognition that Santa Claus has eclipsed the "reason for the season."  Which it was in Europe; but never really was in America.

The fact is, Christmas as we know it and celebrate it in America, is pretty much an invention of the market place, and has only and ever tangentially been related to Christmas as a religious observance, as the "Christ Mass" held to honor the birth of the Savior. It's more like the two celebrations occur coincidentally at the same time of year, than that one is a vulgar and degrading corruption of the Platonic ideal of the other. Dickens has Scrooge attend church on Christmas morning, a changed man.  It's not that Christmas fell on a Sunday that month, but that Christmas was a holy day throughout Europe.  Look back up at what Increase Mather said; there was never such an observance in America.  Even today, most non-Catholic (and Episcopalian?) churches in America close on Sunday when that's Xmas Day.  Once you understand all that, the picture becomes much clearer; or perhaps darker.

If you want to understand how Christmas got started in America, consider the example of the European Feast of Fools. As New Advent says, it was "a celebration marked by much license and buffoonery." Scholars again differ on the reach and importance of this festival; some crown it as a n important "release valve" of the tensions and pressures of feudal society. Others, like Michel Foucault, downplay it. It was limited to northern France and a few other regions of Europe, and always opposed by the Church. The lesson for us is that this 'feast' was a folk celebration, not a church one, and its irreverence was tolerated by the Church because they couldn't stop it, more than it was encouraged as a way of reminding the peasants of their place in the hierarchy (a comparison to Christmas in the slave holding South will prove instructive here, if I remember to mention it again). Christmas, too, was a folk celebration, one more honored in the British South (thanks to the presence of the Episcopal church) than in Puritan New England (where it was officially banned for a time, in at least some of the New England states). Restad's history presents Christmas as largely a folk celebration, in contrast to Thanksgiving, which was vigorously promoted in the 19th century by Sara Josepha Hale, who did more than any individual to promote Thanksgiving as a national holiday (ironically, the objections to it were on church/state grounds. It was argued that a national day of giving thanks would violate the First Amendment, an objection that was finally obviated by the times, when Lincoln established what later became the holiday) Aside from the religious entanglement objection, Thanksgiving was regarded as more of a "New England" celebration than a national one, for much of that century. Christmas, on the other hand, crept into public celebrations from many lands and many hands, and was early on largely disconnected from any religious observance, and while promoted as connected to the Christchild, was really no more dependent upon Church sanction than it is now. The idea, in other words, that there was a "pure" Christmas observance in America once upon a time, which the marketplace or the public square corrupted, is as false as the idea that the Christmas celebration we know now descended in an almost unbroken line from the Roman Saturnalia. It just happens that people like an excuse to exchange gifts and eat a lot of food, and especially for people from a northern European culture, winter is a jolly good time to do that.

Christmas that year, not one to look forward to, was one we should alway look back on.

That's the opening sentence of "Looking Back on Christmas" by William Owens.  I don't know if it's memoir or fiction, but it's become one of my favorite Christmas stories.   It's the story of a family gathering in rural Texas on Christmas Eve.  The family gathers, then sits down to dinner, and after dinner:

After the first table [old Texas tradition my family carried on with in my childhood:  the men ate first, then retired, and the women and children ate.  Yeah, my wife was appalled by that, too, and it was long before we were married that she encountered it.] the men and the bigger boys built up a big fire in the pasture between the house and the front gate.  Then, while the women stood on the front porch to watch, Uncle Charlie gave the little children firecrackers and showed them how to shoot them.  He put a paper fuse against a live coal.  When it had lighted he threw it away from the fire into the dark.

"Don't ever let one go off in your hand," he said, "And don't throw it close to nobody.  Somebody might get hurt."

While we went through the firecrackers he had given us, the men made a trip back to the kitchen.  This time they brought the jug with them and set it in the back end of a wagon.  They brought out more fireworks, and Monroe had the sack of powder in his coat pocket.

"Time for a roman candle," Uncle Charlie said.

He took a long red roman candle and went to the fire.

"You all watch now," he said, "I'm gonna hold it like I was aiming to shoot the gate."

Charlie runs into the dark and let's the candle shoot balls of fire, then he gets Othal to join him in a roman candle battle.  Full disclosure:  I once did something similar with my cousin, although in summer, not winter.  We used plastic tubes from his golf bag to launch bottle rockets at each other.  We didn't even have the excuse of alcohol, we were just young and dumb.

Anyway, you get the flavor of the celebration.  Firecrackers going off, then roman candles being fired at each other in close range.  Then when those are exhausted and everyone's tired of running around and through the house:

Uncle Charlie was not ready for the fun to be over.  He went up the steps and across the front porch.  Aunt Niece was standing in the door, with the lamplight behind her.  He lifted her chin with his fingers and went on past her, to the chimney corner where he kept his double-barreled shotgun.  Then he came out with the gun under his arm and a box of shells in his hand.

Near the fire, he loaded both barrels and set the stock against his shoulder.

"You aiming at the gate?" Othal asked.

"You got to aim at something."

He fired, and after the first blast we heard shot rattle against the gate.

"Got it first shot," Othal said, and ran for his own gun.

In no time at all, five guns were blazing away at the gate, and the little children were running for hiding places under the house.  I shivered at the sound, but felt safe, for their backs were to us and they were aiming at the gate.

Then Othal came running around the house, loading and firing as he ran, and some of the others took after him.  The women had run inside, but I could hear them telling the men to stop.  Too scared to stay under the house, I crawled out and started for the door.  In the darkness I can straight into Otha's knees, and he let a double-barreled blast go off right over my head, leaving a burning flash in my eyes and a ringing in my ears.

The gate was "a wide, heavy gate made of oak timbers fourteen feet long and an inch thick."  However, the next morning:  "We went to look at the gate, and found it half hanging from the posts, with the timbers drilled and splintered by shot."  The story ends this way:

Uncle Charlie came in with a backstick for the fireplace.  My grandmother was waiting for him.

"You ruint the gate," she said.

"I reckon we did."

He laughed and the light in his blue eyes showed he was not sorry.  She frowned and went out to the front porch.

Aunt Niece came in, with a peeled orange in her hand.

"Christmas gift," he said to her.

She went up to him and stuck a slice of orange between his teeth.  They were both laughing without making a sound, and once he leaned over and kissed her.

"I had me some Christmas," he said.

Not so long ago, that story.  It wasn't just in the 1800's that Christmas was a lot different.  But I cite it because this is precisely the celebration of Christmas the Puritans despised.  And frankly, when Christmas Day is spent either in the glow of unbridled lust (wanting goods is as lustful as wanting sexual congress), or the afterglow of "Now what?", I think we could do with a bit more of a raucous Christmas celebration.  Sometimes I think we vanquished the Puritans, and still the Puritans won.

The interesting thing about Christmas in America is that it's always been a glorious bastard, a jackdaw of a project grabbing "Christmas trees" from Germany (related to the "Paradeisbaum" of the medieval German morality plays) and decking the halls and boar's heads and feasting from England (which may or may not be related to, or even influenced by, Druidic practices. It's always seemed like a bit of a stretch to me to go from kissing under the mistletoe directly back to Frazer's "golden bough"). Carols were a medieval creation coming, per Restad, from pagan folk dances that people liked and simply "Christianized" (like most things, the Church couldn't beat 'em, so it joined 'em), although many of the carols we know today are products of the 18th and 19th centuries (so it goes). The idea of caroling, IOW, is much older than most of our carols. As Restad points out, Christmas in America was cobbled together from European bits and pieces, and the parts that fit in America stuck, and the parts that didn't fell away.

We forget, too, that America initially had no holidays. Europe had them because of the church, which was universal throughout the different countries of Europe, and because of local customs. But without a universal church, or established local customs, America went, for almost a century, without any national holiday which all citizens could claim as their own. Ironically, again, that holiday became Christmas; but not because all Americans were, or were even presumed to be, Christians.

Stephen Nissenbaum argues that the American Christmas was formed more by Clement Clark Moore's poem than any other single source. (He also thinks Moore's poem shows the transformation of gift giving from peer to peer (or husband to wife, or employer to employee, as seen in A Christmas Carol), to parent to child.  For Nissenbaum, Moore's "jolly old elf" is a harmless peddler with a sack of goods, which he gives rather than sells, and leaves for the children.  It's not that Moore invented the custom, but that he popularized it.) Accepting Nissenbaum's position arguendo, what is most notable about "The Night Before Christmas" is that it creates a holiday and the celebration of it, without ever getting closer to religion than the word "Christmas" (which the Puritan New Englanders despised as a "Romish" word, but which, by Moore's day, had lost almost all religious connotation). This was more a feature than a bug in the 19th century. Dicken's Christmas Carol comes closer to invoking the religious reasons for the season, but he does it mostly in terms of Victorian sentimentality, than in terms of any church doctrine. Penne Restad points out that Christmas was grabbed onto by merchants in America almost as soon as it emerged as a public celebration. The emergence of the holiday coincided with a renewed interest in the power and importance of domesticity, an interest probably prompted by the Industrial Revolution and the quick acceptance by Americans of the ideals of the Romantic movement (especially the importance of children as children). Personally, I think the tradition arose from a combination of Romanticism and the Pietistic movement of the 17th century, which effects lingered long in a Protestant dominated culture, but Restad makes clear the connections between the desires for domestic values and the importance of a uniting holiday, one everyone could gather into despite cultural ("Germany" as we know it, for example, didn't exist in the 19th century. We often overlook how many cultural differences there were between Europeans, differences that carried over into America) and doctrinal differences. In this sense, Christmas was the first truly "American" holiday. Grafted onto European roots, without doubt; but made a holiday both observant Christians and non-Christians (and yes, there were some, even in the 19th century!) could engage in. It's not at all insignificant that Christmas in America began almost as a religious observance almost anyone could join, and quickly became a public holiday everyone could revel in. And aside from the Puritan's objections to the holiday's Catholic roots, it was the revelry they objected to almost as much.

Where were we then? Oh, yes: Christmas has always been two things at once, especially in America. It's never been a particularly religious holiday, so much as it's been a holiday named for and celebrated around a religious observance (which is still more honored in the breach than in the keeping). Christmas became, almost as soon as it was universally celebrated, a celebration of hearth and home, of domesticity (to this day, does a Christmas tree remind you first of Rockefeller Center, or of your childhood home?) Restad shows us that the Christmas tree itself became an American custom because it came with stories of German families gathered around a small tree on a table top, revealed in all its decorations and offerings of presents by the parents to the excited children. It was the American twist that the tree got bigger and bigger until it had to scrape whatever ceiling it was placed under from the floor on which it had to sit. Some things truly never change.

And I have to add here:  that's a problem in its own right, though probably not the one you are thinking of right now:

In their comprehension of poverty and its solutions, most Americans moved little beyond Dickens. They believed their Christmas generosity praiseworthy. Charles Dudley Warner thought the present American Christmas to be "fuller of real charity and brotherly love, and nearer the Divine intention" than earlier Christmases. The New York Tribune found the holiday "hearty and generous-minded, [full of] good-cheer and open-handed hospitality." "Nowhere in Christendom," it contended, "are the poor remembered at Christmas-tide so generously as they are in American cities, especially in our own."

In this show of self-congratulation, Americans persisted in seeing poor relief as a matter of individual action to be undertaken on much the same terms as gift-giving within the circle of family. That is, Christmas was the time to give. The best and largest gifts went to those closest to the circle's center. The lesser gifts, in descending order of value, went out to relatives and acquaintances of decreasing importance. The worthy poor, as the outermost members of the larger community family, received gifts too, though the least valuable of all the gifts given.

Penne L. Restad, Christmas in America, p. 139, 140

Perhaps I should explain who the "worthy poor" were:

A sense that there were those who were worthy of relief and those who were not qualified the attention devoted to poverty relief [after the Civil War], though. Children almost always deserved aid, as did honest women. Seldom did the same plea go out for men. A seasonal article on the New York Tribune implored the public to provide for poor children. In 1877, it reminded readers that most Americans were "Christian people," and advised them to try their best to keep children from being deprived at this time "when they think that all good gifts and gladness come straight from Him whose birthday it is." At the same time, the paper advised the sympathetic to ignore plain street beggars.

As Restad notes:

The sentimentalization of "worthy paupers" at Christmas time, whether in fact or in fiction, did not bring into question the essential structure of the market economy that had, if only indirectly, produced their poverty. Instead, it imbued destitute women and vagabond children with admirable qualities that existed apart from materialism, perhaps even as substitues for tangible wealth. It also aroused the sympathies of readers by giving a face to poverty, and placed the means of solving the problems of hunger and homelessness in the hands of individuals.(p. 135)

I've learned to look to history for lessons in how we got here, and to understand culture as a genetic inheritance (metaphorically speaking) almost as pre-determined as eye color or gender. we think what we think and act the way we act in part because of who our ancestors were, and what they passed on as important and valuable. The "worthy poor" is an interesting category, especially at this season of the year, when even the most unbelieving among us is encouraged to reflect on the lessons of the man who grew up from the Christchild. Well, perhaps lessons is not the right word. As Bob Cratchit puts it to his wife, speaking of his youngest son:

"Somehow he gets thoughtful sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see."

We don't, after all, want to be reminded that Jesus never put a faith test before someone before Jesus would speak to them, and the one time it is recorded that he did, the Syro-Phoenician woman rebukes him quite accurately. We still prefer our Jesus be more like us, and to start him up from childhood that way, every new year.

I'm well aware of the John Cheever story  about Christmas being a sad season for the poor. First it crossed my mind as just a good post title; then I reflected on how much it represents that American ideal that individual actions can alleviate poverty for the "worthy poor." I can't think of a story that illustrates that better than Cheever's. It's not really a question of generosity, even, because that question gets down to the issue of ownership in the first place. Restad notes in her history of Christmas in America that it was the affluence and abundance produced after the Civil War that led people to think of widening the circle of their gift-giving, to begin to include at all the "worthy poor." Hard to condemn such compassion, and any critique of it looks just like that: condemnation. But there were other voices, even in the 19th century, even in America:

People nowadays interchange gifts and favors out of friendship, but buying and selling is considered absolutely inconsistent with the mutual benevolence which should prevail between citizens and the sense of community of interest which supports our social system. According to our ideas, buying and selling is essentially anti-social in all its tendencies. It is an education in self-seeking at the expense of others, and no society whose citizens are trained in such a school can possibly rise above a very low grade of civilization
-- Edward Bellamy

The ultimate aim of production is not production of goods but the production of free human beings associated with one another on terms of equality.
-- John Dewey

I confess that I am not charmed with the ideal of life held out by those who think that the normal state of human beings is that of struggling to get on; that the trampling, crushing, elbowing, and treading on each other's heels, which form the existing type of social life, are the most desirable lot of human beings
-- John Stuart Mill

The gross national product includes air pollution and advertising for cigarettes, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors, and jails for the people who break them ... It does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play.
-- Robert F. Kennedy

We must recognize that we can't solve our problems now until there is a radical redistribution of economic and political power....[What is required is] a radical restructuring of the architecture of American society.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr

There was a story about a Christmas yard display in Detroit that was too political for some of the neighbors. And generally that's our line on Christmas: we want to reserve it "for the children," and of course, that's still how we think of the "worthy poor," as children. Hard to think of men as children, so they get excluded from the "worthy poor" very easily. We also don't like quotes like those above associated with our Christmas revels. Fair enough. But perhaps even at Christmas we could look again at the ideas of scarcity and abundance, and consider again whether charity really means merely scraping the crumbs off our tables, or if it means something more.

Christmas is a sad season for the poor; but that doesn't mean it has to be; or that our charity has to be based on sorrow, either.

So is our Christmas ruined by all this commercialism? Depends on whether or not you agree with Linus about "what Christmas is all about." I like his answer, personally. But that's the answer for some of us; it isn't, and doesn't have to be, the answer for all of us. Let it be unto you according to your...well, faith, is how the German E&R Church concluded that blessing. But this isn't necessarily a matter of faith. So let it be unto you according to your best interest. Keep Christmas as it best suits you. And may it be a blessing unto you. Now, and into the ages.

🎃🐈‍⬛ 👻 🌾🥮

 Well, yeah, kinda:

No social plans tonight but I might head out onto the balcony in a bit and start screaming "DID YOU KNOW HALLOWEEN IS IRISH ORIGINALLY?" as loud as I can

The connection between Samhain and All Hallow’s Even is a tenuous one,  at best. I’ve already quoted the history of All Saints Day. The idea was floated as early as the late 4th century.  Well, again, I’ll just quote the pertinent language:

Gregory III (731-741) consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to all the saints and fixed the anniversary for 1 November. A basilica of the Apostles already existed in Rome, and its dedication was annually remembered on 1 May. Gregory IV (827-844) extended the celebration on 1 November to the entire Church. The vigil seems to have been held as early as the feast itself

Alright, three things there. 1 May in Ireland was Beltane, about 6 months prior to (or after; either way) Samhain, on 1 November.  These were the two most important holy days on the Irish Celtic calendar. And yet no one ever argues that dedication anniversary was connected to Ireland. Mostly because no one remembers it anymore, but the connection is as solid as the connection to All Saints. Which is to say, not solid at all. Besides, All Saints displaced Samhain to the vigil, or eve. And Gregory III set the date on November 1, but Gregory IV made it a date for the entire church almost 100 years later. At which point is it clear when the Church acted in response to the Irish holy day? Which was important in Ireland, but not really in Europe? 

The best information I can find indicates observance of Samhain was connected to stories of gods and heroes not dissimilar from the tales in the Elder Edda. But we don’t associate those stories with ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night, so, again, the connection to contemporary Hallowe’en is suspect. Well, except for the date.

I’d read this book before*, so I must have forgotten this reference from the late 16th century. The reference is to the “Lord of Misrule” being chosen on All Hallow’s Eve, for a celebration that extended to Candlemas (February 2nd, observance of the presentation of the Christchild to Simeon at the Temple). This connects more with the reason the Puritans banned Christmas in the New World than with Ireland per se. The “Lord of Misrule” indicates a raucous Christmas celebration probably like the “Feast of Fools” on the Continent. You may have noticed this makes Hallowe’en the gateway to Advent and Christmas, as well as nearly a month of Epiphany. (Candlemas was not a small thing. The tradition in England persisted for centuries that the Yuletide greenery could not be removed until Candlemas, lest demons beset you). Raucous celebrations may have Irish roots, but especially at year’s end, they’ve been popular in many European cultures that long ago abandoned the Feast of Fools.

Is Hallowe’en still Samhain? Except for the dates, it’s hard to say so. Some think Gregory III set the date to take over Samhain. But it was almost 100 years later before Gregory IV made the date “universal.” Was the church indifferent to Ireland and its holy days before then? Well, maybe; but there’s no record of it. Gregory III was probably looking at the Church Calendar, not the Irish one. Gregory IV was just as likely thinking of the Church, not Ireland alone. So the date is as likely to be coincidental as intentional. Besides, Samhain didn’t disappear; it just changed dates (unlike Brigid, who became a saint of the Church, and as a Celtic goddess disappeared until the recovery of Irish folklore in the 20th century).

Samhain also became more associated with the Lord of Misrule than ghosts or Celtic heroes. The Feast of Fools was finally banned in England (and on the Continent) in the 1600’s (the Puritans, but also just a tiresome thing). Hallowe’en persisted as the Eve of All Saints, though Henry VIII and Elizabeth I both tried to suppress it because it was a “papal holiday” (they had their own, non-Puritanical, reasons). But it was a witch trial under James I (the same fervor that jumped the pond to Salem), linked to an alleged incident on Hallowe’en night, that connected the day to witches thereafter. And then the Victorians using the Romantics interest in folklore (as the Industrial Revolution swept that world away) to take new interest in ghost stories, well…

So, is that Irish? It’s more a series of accidents of history, but it didn’t wipe out the celebration, as the Burns poem shows. It just added witches to it; and other thing later on. The celebration of the holiday, mostly along the lines Burns memorialized, continued in the British Isles, mostly excluding England; but the festivities in England and Europe shifted to Michaelmas (12 November) and the slaughter of livestock as part of the festival, for the winter. No candy, though. The Scots and the Irish did bring Hallowe’en to America in the second half of the 19th century, with the diaspora brought by the potato famines. But it was received as a celebration for children, which probably explains how we ended up with the holiday we have today.

Hallowe’en does have an Irish origin, but the celebration we observe today (and, ironically, sent back to Europe), wouldn’t be recognizable in pre-Christian, or even Christian, Ireland. Which is not to discount the Celtic connection; but it’s hardly an observance that’s come down to us unchanged through the ages. Though I am intrigued by that reference in New Adventures to the vigil being attached to the feast day almost from the beginning. Was Ireland that influential in Europe in the 8th century? And for the centuries between the 8th century and the 12th (when the Feast if Fools began to appear), what was that vigil like? 👻

*Aside from the link, I relied on Trick or Treat; A History of Hallowe’en, Reaktion Books, 2019, by Lisa Morton, for most of this post.

🎃 Once A Year Is Biblical 🎄

 My brother-in-law was over last night. We’re both in our 70’s, so we fell to talking about “the way things were,” as old people are wont to do. He argued that there were once rules, and being ex-Green Beret, he used the military as his example. In the military, he said, the same rules apply to everyone. I didn’t point out that, under the UCMJ, the general gets much more deference than the private; and today, especially, the SOD (which the military is properly under, the SOD being a civilian) , the rules have been tossed in a shredder as Hegseth fires general officers right and left. It’s a hegemonic move not unlike the white, male privilege he and I grew up under. Although we learned that hegemony as harmony, and Hegseth wields it to hide how weakness; much like the man who appointed him. My brother-in-law is an interesting (and not unusual) mix of conservative political values, and yet fully aware of the injustices done by white hegemony and economic power. Aware of it, and concerned by it. So this wasn’t an argument with a drunk uncle at Thanksgiving. It wasn’t an argument at all. He acknowledged his contradictions, even as he didn’t see any way to resolve them. I sympathize. It took seminary and years of work to change myself enough to eliminate some of the contra. Even then, it was my adult daughter who pointed out she walked through a world of dangers (from sexual harassment to threats of assault) that I simply didn’t live in. There is always another perspective than that of the straight, white, middle class m heterosexual male. And it’s hard to realize that perspective shouldn’t be normative.

We even talked about Hallowe’en in our youth. But we didn’t think about this:

Maybe it’s the corn syrup talking, but to me, Halloween will always be the quintessential American holiday. The Fourth of July and Thanksgiving don’t come close. Plenty of countries, dictatorships included, commemorate their nation’s founding and designate evenings to spend with relatives. Halloween is a night when kids visit strangers, people with no blood ties and no debt to their family, and receive gifts with no obligation in return. It is an exercise in civic trust, a belief in one’s neighbors regardless of religion, creed or political party. It’s a cheesy, cheery, schmaltzy, “Brady Bunch” optimism. My family and countless others have crossed oceans for it.

That’s the perspective of a young boy, a Russian immigrant, on his first Hallowe’en. So, add to my categories above, “American.” It never occurred to me that Hallowe’en was an act of civic trust. I know there’s “trunk or treat” parties, now, and the distinctly suburban neighborhoods of my childhood are not common even here in Houston. My street is a passageway. The street I grew up on was traveled only by neighbors. For three years after we moved here, we lived in a parsonage next to the church, on a busy four lane road. The nearest neighborhoods were miles down the road. We drove my daughter to friends’ neighborhoods. We certainly couldn’t let her walk out the front door, as I did when I was her age. Today there are barely any children in the neighborhood. We don’t buy candy, because no one comes to take it. But if they started up again, if children moved to the neighborhood, we’d open the door to them, without hesitation.  “Trick or treat!”

It occurs to me that the two great civic occasions in America are founded on Xian holidays (holy days), but they are both exercises in civic trust. Xmas may be uncomfortable, even oppressive, to non-Xians, but the secular observance has nothing to do with Xianity. Maybe the Xmas tree is the ancestor of the Paradeisbaum from German passion plays, but who is really aware of that? Is Santa Claus really St. Nicholas, or just a jolly old elf in a red coat? Separated entirely from Epiphany, gifts on Xmas morning are practically a private, civic duty. The culture tells us to never disabuse children of the “truth” about Santa, and even if we never fully live up to it, once a year it’s another civic creed that it is better to give than to receive. If any of this is oppressive to non-Xians, it isn’t meant to be. The season is so secular everyone is invited to join, and almost nobody wants to go to church when Xmas is on a Sunday (except the Catholics, who started it. The religious descendants of the Puritans who banned Christmas now, more often than not, close church that one Sunday every seven years or so.) Thanksgiving is purely secular, but private (Christmas morning is, too). July 4th, especially in these times, could easily be jingoistic and mean, when “patriotism” is confined to “true patriots,” which may not include you. But Xmas? That’s the season (a whole month!) when we’re supposed to open our hearts and welcome the stranger and feed the hungry and clothe the naked. And all because we are supposed to be generous and caring, if not 12 months a year, then at least for part of one.

Hallowe’en is not as big as that;  but maybe that makes it the gateway to Xmas; a smaller civic celebration that really is an act of civic trust, to get us ready to open our doors to friends (for parties), and, at least a little bit, to strangers, to whom we offer a bit more than candy. Every year I get appeals, starting in October, from charities pointing out that Xmas is coming. It’s the time of year we are expected, and expect, to give.

As the Russian immigrant said, reflecting on his childhood and his then confused grasp of English:

Triko-reet once a lifetime was very good. Triko-reet once a year was biblical.

Maybe Hallowe’en is a gateway to Xmas, a secular one. As Xmas is a secular gateway to New Year’s, in which we hope (but always fail) to carry that “Xmas spirit” into a brand new year.

There are worse ways to think about civic duty and civic trust, and civic holidays.

Rosenmontag Dusseldorf

Even Germany celebrates Epiphany:

On March 3, 2025, the legendary Rosenmontagszug (Rose Monday Parade) winds its way through Düsseldorf's city center. On a route of almost 5 kilometers, local clubs and guests from all over Germany present the session motto “Hütt on wie et wor” in a colorful spectacle.

The Düsseldorf Rosenmontagszug (Rose Monday Parade) 2025 is the highlight of the Düsseldorf carnival. On 3 March, several thousand revellers will parade through the city center along a route of around 5 kilometers, accompanied by enthusiastic carnival revellers and cheerful music. The traditional carnival culture is celebrated under the season motto “Hütt on wie et wor” - colorful, exuberant and full of joie de vivre. The imaginative floats, costumes and performances make the procession an unforgettable experience that attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators year after year. The Rosenmontagszug (Rose Monday Parade) transforms the streets of Düsseldorf into a sea of color and cheerfulness.

MAGA really doesn’t like the Trump, Putin, and Elon Musk floats at the carnival parade in Germany.

My hats off to the Germans!

🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 pic.twitter.com/n55rnbb8aX

— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) March 4, 2025

The annoyance of MAGA is just lagniappe. This “Feast of Fool” exuberance is why their spiritual ancestors, the Puritans, banned Christmas (Epiphany is an extension of the celebratory 12 days until Ash Wednesday.).

Twelfth Night 2025

Precisely what I will be doing this weekend, ironically enough...

January 5th; the twelfth day of Christmas.

The season of epiphany follows Christmas.  That season begins on January 6th, and commemorates the arrival of the Magi following the star to worship the Christchild. "Epiphany" comes from the Greek word "epiphaneia," which my Bauer (Greek lexicon) translates as "appearance", with the intransitive verb form "to show." Interestingly, the English word was so associated with the church that as recently as some 20 years ago the OED entry for the word still gave a first definition as the festival on January 6th, commemorating the visit of the Magi, and the second definition "A manifestation or appearance of some divine or superhuman being."

So it has almost always been a "religious" word in English.

Interestingly, too, the Greek word ("epiphaneia") only appears in the letters of the New Testament, and once in the Gospels: in Luke 1:79.

To shine on those sitting in darkness, in the shadow of death, to guide our feet to the way of peace.

The last "verse" of the song of Zechariah, the "Benedictus."

One can make a lot of idle speculation of all of this. Epiphany is actually at the heart of Christianity, and causes the constant friction Christianity has had with Greek rationalism ab initio.  Greek epistemology, via Aristotle, was based on the idea that knowledge was "discovered" from the natural world (so for centuries those we now call "scientists" were referred to as "natural philosophers"). Plato's epistemology is often considered to be different, but the difference is really only in type, not in kind. For Socrates knowledge came, not from the "illusory" world, but from the "real" soul, and the memories recovered there via the instruments of the illusory world. Either way, though, the most important knowledge is "discovered" by the activity of the subject.

Hebraic epistemology, on the other hand, and such as it was, centered on revelation, on the revealing of knowledge from the source of all things: the Creator.

This is not a mere academic concern. Much has been made about Paul's writings, and how they are less valid than the Gospels because Paul never knew Jesus (neither did the Gospel writers, most likely), and mentions little about the life of Jesus, and nothing about his teachings, but claims authority based on his "revelation."

"for surely you have already heard of the commission of God's grace that was given me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words..." --Ephesians 3:2-3.

Revelation, for many in Paul's audience, was grounds enough for a claim to authority, one that would then be tested against the "proven" revelation of the Scriptures. To his Gentile audience, Paul would then appeal to a different kind of knowledge; but this brings us to Matthew, and the story of the Magi.

The story itself is really quite simple. A lot of traditions have grown up around it, to the point we are convinced Matthew mentions three wise men (he only mentions three gifts), and that the star "led" them to the stall (that's Luke, by the way) in Bethlehem, all the way from "the East." (The star directs them to the Holy Family after they get as far as Herod.) In fact, it's the traditions around Matthew that have led to speculations about whether the star was a nova (Johannes Kepler's theory), a comet (Halley's?); or even a planetary conjunction. I remember attending a presentation on the “Star of Bethlehem” at a planetarium, so there’s still a modern effort to explain it scientifically. Which shows, in part, the pervasiveness of Greek epistemology. Or maybe it's just a "human tendency." But, as Yeats asked, how can you know the dancer from the dance?

Back to Matthew: First, the star doesn't move until the end of the story. What the Magi report to Herod is that they have seen the new king's star "at its rising," and have come to pay him homage. A bit of Greek epistemology, I think, intruding into Matthew's Jewish world. Nature reveals a truth Herod's scholars have missed, until it is pointed out to them. Of course, creation responds to the creator, so Matthew is not going too far off the reservation.

Still, the Magi don't know everything, and have to rely on the Holy Scriptures for final directions. It is only then that the star "moves" and guides them until it stands still over the spot where the child lay. Which may simply mean it brought them at night (a powerfully metaphorical scene, that; the light shining in darkness.) to the home of the Holy Family. Remember, this is Matthew's nativity: no shepherds, no angels in the sky, no census to drag them to a manger. They live in Bethlehem. Why do I insist on the distinction? Because Matthew tells us Herod ordered the death of all males 2 years old and younger, based on what the Magi had told him. So "lay" doesn't mean an infant unable to sit up. (A point emphasized in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew: that the flight into Egypt takes place two years after the birth in the cave. “And when the second year was past, Magi came from the east to Jerusalem, bringing great gifts." Chapter 16, Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. I find these small details fascinating.)

What, then, is the Epiphany? Traditionally, it is the revealing of Jesus to the Gentiles. Perhaps there is even a bit of unintended bias involved in it, as most of the early church "fathers" were primarily Greek in their epistemology, and sympathetic to a story that gave them an opportunity to "see" the Christchild in signs available to those without knowledge of the Scriptures, but also signs that required them to come to the Scriptures for full understanding. Certainly Augustine and Aquinas would find that a comforting tale.

But it is also the crucial story for Christians, a much more important story than simply the chance to wear coloured robes and lead a camel through the church. It is the story of how we know what we know, and where our knowledge truly comes from. It is not a story with an answer, however. As T.S. Eliot intuited, it is a story that only points in a direction.

A story worthy of more meditation and consideration than we are wont to give it.

And besides, Twelfth Night was always the occasion for a final Christmas party! Too bad the woke mob of Puritans took all that away…

The end of the story in which they flee from Herod to become illegal aliens in the United States of the area is what resonates most for me. Jesus, Mary and Joseph as the aliens who Mike Johnson and the rest of those Republican-fascists want to die on razor wire in the river.

That’s a comment from last year, when I posted this. Sadly, the situation is little changed.

And the people say: “Amen!”

"Bethlehem," by Annie Dillard

I don't know where this came from.  I found it in my archives, an unpublished draft from a few years ago.  I decided to post it simply because of the reference to the cave as the place of the nativity (let the reader understand). That's a reference that doesn't appear in the canonical gospels, but first shows up in the Arabic Infancy Gospel. Tradition, contrary to the aim of the Puritans and their spiritual descendants, is not limited to the canonical scriptures. That alone seemed to make this worth posting.

One of the queerest spots on Earth — I hope — is the patch of planet where, according to tradition, a cave once stabled animals, and where Mary gave birth to a son whose later preaching — scholars of every stripe agree, with varying enthusiasm — caused the occupying Romans to crucify him.  Generations of Christians have churched over the traditional Bethlehem spot to the highest degree.  Centuries of additions have made the architecture peculiar, but no one can see the church anyway, because many monasteries clamp onto it in clusters like barnacles.  The Greek Orthodox Church owns the grotto site now, in the form of the Church of the Nativity.

There, in the Church of the Nativity, I took worn stone stairways to descend to levels of dark rooms, chapels, and dungeonlike corridors where hushed people passed.  The floors were black stone of cracked marble.  Dense brocades hung down old stone walls.  Oil lamps hung in layers.  Each polished silver or brass lamp seemed to absorb more light than its orange flame emitted, so the more lamps shone, the darker the space.

Packed into a tiny, domed upper chamber, Norwegians sang, as every other group did in turn, a Christmas carol.  The stone dome bounced the sound around.  The people sounded like seraphs singing inside a bell, sore amazed.

Descending once more, I passed several monks, narrow men, fine-faced and black, who wore tall black hats and long black robes.  Ethiopians, they use the oldest Christian rite.  At a lower level, in a small room, I peered over half a stone wall and saw Europeans below; they whispered in a language I could not identify.

Distant music sounded deep, as if from within my ribs.  The music was, in fact, people from all over the world in the upper chamber, singing harmonies in their various tongues.  The music threaded the vaults.

Now I climbed down innumerable dark stone stairs to the main part, the deepest basement: The Grotto of the Nativity.  The grotto was down yet another smoky stairway, at the back of a stone cave far beneath street level.  This was the place.  It smelled of wet sand.  It was a narrow cave about ten feet wide; cracked marble paved it.  Bunched tapers, bending grotesque in the heat, lighted a corner of floor.  People had to kneel, one by one, under arches of brocade hangings, and stretch into a crouch down among dozens of gaudy hanging lamps, to see it.

A fourteen-pointed silver star, two feet in diameter, covered a raised bit of marble floor at the cave wall.  This silver star was the X that marked the spot: Here, just here, the infant got born.  Two thousand years of Christianity began here, where God empties himself into man.  Actually, many Christian scholars think “Jesus of Nazareth” was likely born in Nazareth.  Early writers hooked his birth to Bethlehem to fit a prophecy.  Here, now, the burning oils smelled heavy.  It must have struck many people that we were competing with these lamps for oxygen.

In the center of the silver star was a circular hold.  That was the bull’s eye, God’s quondam target.

Crouching people leaned forward to wipe their fingers across the hole’s flat bottom.  When it was my turn, I knelt, bent under a fringed sating drape, reached across half the silver star, and touched its hole.  I could feel some sort of soft wax in it.  The hole was a quarter inch deep and six inches across, like a wide petri dish.  I have never read any theologian who claims that God is particularly interested in religion, anyway.

Any patch of ground anywhere smacks more of God’s presence on Earth, to me, than did this marble grotto.  The ugliness of the blunt and bumpy silver star impressed me.  The bathetic pomp of the heavy, tasseled brocades, the marble, the censers hanging from chains, the embroidered antependium, the aspergillum, the crosiers, the ornate lamps — some human’s idea of elegance — bespoke grand comedy, too, that God put up with it.  And why should he not?  Things here on Earth get a whole lot worse than bad taste.

“Every day,” said Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, “the glory is ready to emerge from its debasement.”