We always leave our Christmas decorations up until January 7. I'm not just lazy. I like to celebrate the full Christmas season. The hum-drum crazy shopping days before December 25 has now been extended into the Boxing Day mall madness. The remaining days of Christmas can be a wind-down from all that, excepting of course the celebrations around welcoming in the New Year. It can become a quieter family & friends time and/or a religious time.
The celebration now called Christmas was taken by the early Christians from a winter festival celebrated for thousands of years around the Winter Solstice. Christmas was assigned to December 25 by most Europeans, but some put it on a different day exactly 12 days later. The time between these two dates are the Twelve Days of Christmas. The number twelve was convenient, too! That happens to be the number of Apostles!
This weekend and into early next week those other Christians celebrating on the Gregorian Calendar will be quietly celebrating their Christmas. Many of those folks can trace their heritage back to the Ukraine and parts thereabouts, but there are other groups from elsewhere celebrating at this time, too.
So Merry Christmas to all of you celebrating at this time. May you have peace and happiness through the year.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY: People will forget how fast you did a job but they will remember how well you did it!
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