Christmas is not over till it’s over

Americans and Western Europeans are heavily influenced by business advertisements. The world pictures Santa Clause as a jolly fat man in a red suit because of an advertisement by Coca Cola. In America, Christmas decorations begin to appear at Halloween and they are taken down on December 26^th, or thereabouts, because Christmas Day is over. It is time to move on to the next money maker, New Year’s Eve followed by Valentine’s Day. The 26th is no longer a Christian celebration, but is called by the secular, business oriented, Boxing Day. This is becoming the norm around the world. People have forgotten that Christmas is not over until it is over.

Christmas season begins with the somewhat penitential Advent and runs four Sundays until Christmas. The celebrations are not as jubilant as they are Christmas and afterwards. Advent is followed by Christmas, which is a major high Holy Day full of joyous celebrations and brings in the forty-day Christmastide. This initial Christmas celebration lasts for twelve days and includes the feasts of St. Stephen (26th), St. John the Apostle (27th), and The Holy Innocents (28th). The twelve days ends with Epiphany on January 6th, another major Holy Day. On this day we celebrate the coming of the Wise Men and the manifestation of our Lord to the non-Jewish peoples of the world. The forty-day Christmas celebration only ends with The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, also called The Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin on February 2nd. These forty-days, in which the churches are decorated in white or gold, are days of joy, parties, and celebrations.

As can be seen, the birth of the Son of God, the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, is a momentous celebration and should not be cut short. Christmas decorations should be left up for as long as possible. The world is filled with darkness, bad, even filthy things. It needs this witness of goodness and light. Those of us in the Church are to carry the witness of Christ to the peoples of Earth, bringing hope and forgiveness in a world without either. Let us not cut short the celebration and give in to the pressure from business.