Today is the eighth day of
Christmas. For those who don’t know, in western Christianity Christmas is a
twelve day feast, ending on January 5 (Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”) just
prior to January 6, the Feast of Epiphany when we celebrate the arrival of the
Magi to worship Jesus and thus look ahead to the spread of the Gospel to all
the peoples of the earth.
It is very unlikely that Jesus
was actually born on December 25. That date was selected for reasons I explain here.
But the date actually has serendipity about it because it makes January 1 the
eighth day of Christmas. Consider:
- On the eighth day after his birth, following the Law of Moses, Jesus was circumcised.
- January is named after Janus, the Roman god with two faces, one looking backwards to the past, the other forwards to the future.
- So on the first day of the month that looks back to the past and forward to the future, we celebrate Jesus’ circumcision, looking back to the Old Testament even as we look forward to the inauguration of the New Covenant through Jesus’ work.
This wasn’t the reason December
25 was selected as the Feast of the Nativity (a.k.a. Christmas), but there is
something appropriate about it. It also gives additional meaning to the start
of the New Year.
And with that, I wish you all a
very happy and blessed New Year.
amhn ercou kurie ihsou. (Rev. 22:20b)
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