In this context , I have just found the quote "The three Saints' Days which
immediately follow Christmas Day are mentioned by St. Bernard (twelfth
century) as forming one connected festival". (Evan Daniel, The Prayer Book,
its history , language and contents.)
Hutton, in "The Stations of the Sun" in his chapter on the origins of
Christmas says that "around the year 400 .. feasts were being established on
the days immediately following the Nativity : on the 26th for the first
Christian martyr , Stephen, on the 27th for John the Evangelist, reputedly
Christ's favourite disciple, and on the 28th for the Holy Innocents
slaughtered by Herod's soldiers at Bethlehem ... In 567 the council of Tours
declared that the whole period of twelve days between the Nativity and the
Epiphany formed one festal cycle. It also confirmed that three of those
days, representing the old Kalendae, would be kept as fasts between the two
blocs of rejoicing. The old festive tradition of the New Year, however,
gradually reasserted itself , and by the eighth century the western church
had honourably surrendered by declaring 1 January to be the feast of
Christ's Circumcision. The medieval system of twelve days of celebration
following the winter solstice, with peaks as 25 December, 1 January and 6
January was now in place."
Regards,
Tim
PS In the absence of Carolyn's daily feasts of late, do any other list
members agree with me and think a repeat of Bill East's posts (dug out of
the archives) on the Great O Antiphons starting on O Sapientia would be
appropriate ?
----- Original Message -----
From: Ferzoco, G.P. <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, December 09, 2000 10:01 AM
Subject: Re: days of xmas?
> Dear Dana,
>
> Thanks for this interesting query to the list; I (for one) had no inkling
of
> such celebrations. Do the sources make clear if this was in some way a
> liturgical extension of celebrations of the birth of Christ, or the
> crusading equivalent of an office party that would get out of hand and
last
> for a few days? Does just one source mention this, or several?
>
> Looking forward to office parties,
> George
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dana Cushing / Austrechild
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: 12/8/2000 7:33 PM
> Subject: days of xmas?
>
> >My question is concerning a book on medieval military history I'm
> writing,
> >and has to do with the celebration of Christmas. Why were the
> Crusaders
> >celebrating their Christmas festivities from 24 to 28 December (Xmas
> eve
> >to Holy Innocents)? Especially as opposed to a single night (usually
> xmas
> >eve) or the full twelve days until Epiphany?
>
> thanks, dana cushing (new member)
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