Ever tried to wish someone a Merry Christmas on January 2nd? Or Happy Easter two weeks after Easter Sunday?
It can be pretty weird trying to follow the liturgical calendar in the context of pretty much everyone else around you following the American one. At times I wrestle with the missional value of it. Do I communicate nonsense if I’m talking about Easter when everyone else finished eating their chocolate bunnies three weeks ago? Do I just look like a religious weirdo if I wish someone a Merry Christmas on January 2nd, and then have to explain, “No, really … Christmas is 12 days, and the Christian New Year isn’t January 1st, it’s Advent, and … nevermind.”
I don’t exactly follow it very well. I didn’t get to a Maundy Thursday or to my own church’s Good Friday service this year (Sophia skipped her nap, meaning she’d have been a nightmare during the Friday evening service). I didn’t give Lent much thought at all – something I’m rather sad about. I’m in this weird paradox where on the one hand, I’d never want to give up the gospel to rules and regulations, and the binding of the conscience to certain observances. St. Paul was pretty clear about that. But on the other hand, I want a church to rigidly follow the Christian calendar and bind my conscience to feast days and fasts and celebrations.
We’ve thought about celebrating Christmas over 12 days with Sophia: stocking on Christmas morning, and one present each day until Epiphany. But would that make her a weirdo when she goes to school?
Whatever my struggle with this issue, Easter has begun. We’re not at the end of Easter because we’re at the end of Easter Sunday. Resurrection is too big an event for one Sunday. The Easter season has begun, and I very much hope to keep my heart fixed on it straight till Ascension Sunday.
Vain the stone, the watch, the seal, Alleluia!
Christ hath burst the gates of hell, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids His rise, Alleluia!
Christ hath opened paradise, Alleluia!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Travis said, “We’ve thought about celebrating Christmas over 12 days with Sophia: stocking on Christmas morning, and one present each day until Epiphany. But would that make her a weirdo when she goes to school?”
Does celebrating Hanukkah over 8 days make Jewish children weirdos? Does celebrating Kwanzaa over the course of a week make African-American children weirdos?
Yep, it does.
So, why not add the Christians in there? In fact, I think Jews & African-Americans are actually being more counter cultural now than Christians. For with the secular world now celebrating “Christmas,” at least in an entirely secular gift giving way, the Christian holiday season has been shifted to fit the world’s season, i.e. from All Saints’ Day (day after Halloween for those non-liturgical folks) to December 25th, so that by the time Christmas rolls around most Christians are done with the season just as the world is.
So, as one person still resisting the shift by celebrating Advent every year & singing mostly Advent hymns & not singing Christmas ones until Christmas actually starts & then till Epiphany, I say turn Sophia into a weirdo all you want.
Plus, by celebrating Christmas over the course of the twelve days, you might get Sophia accustomed to receiving more frequent but less expensive gifts.
Travis,
Some of us think the rest of y’all are weirdos (not really, of course). We Orthodox find it incomprehensible that many folks don’t go to church on Christmas Day unless it’s on a Sunday. For the most part, if it’s a holiday, we have church. That’s just what we do. This includes the 12 days of Christmas.
Most Christian traditions here in the States have divorced Christmas from the traditional Festal system, however. For example, most probably don’t know that Dec 26th is traditionally a feast day for the Theotokos (Mother of God) or that Dec 27th is St Stephen’s Day (Good King Wenceslas and all that). My daughter is the only Orthodox child in her school and she doesn’t consider herself a weirdo (she’s 9).
Sophia is young enough that the 12 days of Christmas are perfectly appropriate for her. They make more sense, however, if tied to their traditional Festal Cycle.
What our daughter has the most difficulty with is St Nicholas’ Day (Dec 6) when it is traditional to give presents. We’re doing our best with that. As long as you and your Mrs are firm in your beliefs and convictions, Sophia will be too, even if none of her friends are.
Soon it will be Pascha for us, so our daughter gets “2 Easters.” She enjoys Pascha because she gets to stay up all night, but celebrates Easter with her grandparents and cousins who aren’t Orthodox. It’s all good.
Kevin, all very good points!
I remember showing up to the Catholic side of the family on Christmas afternoon a few years ago. I was a Baptist pastor at the time. They all knew this. They asked if I’d been to church that morning, and I said, “No.” The response … I kid you not … was, in complete and utter shock and disbelief: “Don’t you believe in God?!”