The Reason for the Season!

Let us all pause a moment to remember the "Reason for the Season."

Advent is the time of year we wait in eager anticipation of the Christ Mass, the Christmas Season, but ultimately the reason of His coming was to go through the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Holy Week - the last week of Lent and the beginning of Eastertide. The REAL reason for the season is our salvation - which is celebrated through Easter/Eastertide. From the perspective that every Sunday is truly a "little Easter," then the Advent and Christmastide seasons have meaning all year round.

ChristMass begins with Midnight Mass, of course at midnight during the first minutes of December 25th. This is truly when we should BEGIN the celebration of ChristMass!

This season minimally lasts for twelve days - till the Epiphany, on January 6th. It is these twelve days that we should be celebrating the birth of our Lord. We say "minimally" because Christmastide really lasts at least through Candlemas (February 2nd) and in some ancient traditions, it lasts all the way through Epiphany and ends with the start of the Septuagesima Season.

Why do we celebrate in late December and early January though?

Early Christians sought to calculate the date of Christ's birth based on the idea that Old Testament prophets died either on an anniversary of their birth or of their conception. They reasoned that Jesus died on an anniversary of his conception, so the date of his birth was nine months after the date of Good Friday, either December 25 or January 6. Thus, rather than the date of Christmas being appropriated from pagans by Christians, the opposite is held to have occurred. [See Duchesne (1902) and Talley (1986).]
(Source).

So, based on these calculations - it seems understandable why the ChristMass Season lasts from December 25th through January 6th or even February 2nd. This also coincides with the time frame many Orthodox celebrate ChristMass - being January 7th. Their reason for doing so on that date is because they did not recognize "the reforms of the Gregorian calendar nor the Revised Julian calendar" (ibid).

Advent is nearly over - and we eagerly await the wee hours of the morning of December 25th, and the First Mass of the day - the Christ Mass. (Noting also, that's why it has the name "Christmas" - in remembrance of the "Christ Mass").

A blessed Advent to all, and I hope your ChristMass is wonderful too!

In JMJ,
Scott<<<