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[Photo of St. John Fisher Church's Nativity Scene on Dec. 24, 2006]

I was reminded recently that some Christians celebrate Christmas Day NOT on Dec. 25th, but either on January 6th, 7th or 19th. Blogger Iva over at squirrelism.net follows Serbian Orthodox Church practices and celebrates Christmas Day on Jan. 7th. As a Roman Catholic, I celebrate the birth of Jesus on Dec. 25th, but I try to respect (depends) other people’s beliefs.

Yes, differences do matter, but I want to believe that most Christians would agree (or should, anyway) that we need to focus on putting the “Christ” back in Christmas. It is not just solely about that jolly fat dude and shiny presents, otherwise it’d be called “Santamas”. Think. Really.

[Photo of Santa Claus statue at HomeSense store last December]

If you’re still scratching your head on “January 6th, 7th or 19th”, I’ll try to unmuddle your thoughts by quoting this long passage from this site which explains those dates quite well:

“Without going into the history of all the pagan window dressing associated with the modern yuletide season, the true celebrations, according to the ancient tradition of the church, was a culmination of events related to God’s Incarnation. This was not called “Christmas” but rather Theophany which means “revelation of God” and was universally celebrated on January 6th by all Christendom, hi-lighted by the remembrance of Jesus’ Baptism. Although, ironically today, Christmas is a celebration of Jesus’ birthday, it wasn’t until later that the Nativity was incorporated into the January 6th celebrations of the Theophany.

The question about dates must be answered in 2 parts. There are actually only 2 dates for the observance of Jesus’ birth and not 4. They are December 25th and January 6th. The confusion of the other 2 dates, January 7th and 18th are due to the use of 2 calendars, the Gregorian and the Julian. While most of the known world, such as Canada, is on the Gregorian calendar (named after Pope Gregory of Rome), some Orthodox Christians maintain their liturgical calendars according to the ancient Julian calendar. Thus, the January 7th date actually corresponds with December 25th on the “old” Julian Calendar while January 19th corresponds to January 6th on the Gregorian calendar. Those who observe January 7th which is actually December 25th on the Julian calendar are referred to as “old calendarists”. Despite the calendar usage, all these churches observe the Epiphany or the Baptism of Jesus 12 days following the Nativity.”

Also, for more information on the Julian Calendar, check this Wikipedia page. Unmuddled yet? No? Sorry.

Since I use my blog to dump, umm, store photos that I would never ever print (because my effing camera and I both suck at photo-taking), here are more photos I snapped of St. John Fisher Church’s Nativity Scene (also known as crib or crà¨che) after the 5:30 PM mass last Dec. 24.

Click on a thumbnail image to enlarge photo.

And lastly, here’s a funny (and endearing, well to me it is) photo of my beloved Mom standing outside the church. After mass, I asked her to pose in front of the Holy Mary statue. Since it was a bit cold (and dark) outside, she wrapped her scarf on her head. She blinked because of the blinding camera flash. When I reviewed the photo on my craptastic digital camera view screen, it dawned on me that her head pose - not done on purpose, sort of mimicked the Holy Mary statue. Cracks me up.

Yes, it’s a tad booooring to still be writing about Christmas… Oh well, it’s my blog. I store stuff in here to remember crap my brain can’t hold.

Specifically, I want to always remind myself this year to make an effort to strengthen my spiritual centre. Find my light. Find what was lost.

Adieu,

Last crumbs of Christmas fruitycake