Friday, December 27, 2002

Third Day of Christmas. Bob and Doug have a great version of "The 12 Days of Christmas" [Flash Version] which includes this little quiz at the beginning:
Bob: Here's a quiz. Quiz for Doug.
Doug: Okay, I have my thinking touque on.
Bob: Yeah, right. What are the twelve days of Christmas? Cause, figure it out, right. Christmas is when?
Doug: Uh, the 25th.
Bob: Right, and what's the 24th, Christmas Eve, right? So, that's two. And then, what's after that?
Doug: Um... Uh, Wrestling Day.
Bob: No. Get out.
Doug: Boxing Day, yeah, yeah.
Bob: That's three. Then what's after that? Nothing.
Doug: New Year's.
Bob: Four. And what's...
Doug: New Year's Eve.
Bob: Five. Where do you get twelve?
Doug: Uh... There's two Saturdays and Sundays in there, that's four. That's nine. And, three other days, which I believe are the mystery days.
Of course, as I've noted previously, the 12 days of Christmas are the season in the Church calendar which follows Advent and runs from December 25 through January 5, which is the day before the Epiphany, which is on January 6. In Latin America the 6th is known as el Día de los Tres Reyes or Three Kings Day and is a time for gift giving (in my attempted brevity, I'm skipping over the nine days of Posada - the processions which recreate Mary and Joseph's nine-day journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem and their attempts to find lodging -- yet, this should not be overlooked -- it's a wonderful tradition which I hope takes root in a multicultural USA).

Anyway, it seems to me if you want to get away from the "commercialism" of Christmas, a good way to do it would be to return to the Church calendar with Advent being a time of fasting and Christmas being a 12 day period of feasting and celebration, with gift giving done on el Día de los Tres Reyes. Plus, this is a good response to those hosers who note that Jesus wasn't born on December 25.

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