For years I have heard the phrase: "In the old days, the Christmas season lasted until February 2nd, Candlemas Day. 40 days of Christmas, and 40 days of Easter" So many people would use that as the reason for keeping up their Christmas decorations until the Feast of the Presentation. I always wondered about it, but didn't really understand it until lately, so here are a few thoughts.
In the current Roman Calendar (the Novus Ordo), revised in 1969, the Christmas season ends after the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, which is either the Sunday after Epiphany or January 13. Below is this year's Liturgical Calendar Wheel created by Michele Quigley which gives a beautiful visual of the changing of the liturgical seasons:
The Liturgical Wheel below is from 1961 Saint Joseph Daily Missal, following the Traditional Calendar (I apologize for the crookedness):
The Time after Epiphany of the Traditional Calendar corresponds to the first part of Ordinary Time after the Christmas season in the current calendar, and both have the liturgical color of green.
What is different is that the Traditional Calendar was also broken down into two sections: the Christmas Cycle and Easter Cycle. The Christmas Cycle encompassed Advent, Christmas, and the Time After Epiphany. The Easter Cycle included Septuagesima, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and Time After Pentecost.
So the Time After Epiphany is technically in the Christmas Cycle but not the Christmas Season. Christmastide or the Christmas season in both calendars have white as the liturgical color. In the Traditional Calendar this lasted for 21 days until January 13, and the current Calendar it is until the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord, which could be January 13 or the Sunday after Epiphany, whichever comes first..
Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, OSB in the 1949 Saint Andrew Daily Missal explains "The Time after Epiphany includes from one to five Sundays; it recalls to use the hidden life of Christ at Nazareth, and manifests to us His divinity." The revised calendar doesn't include Septuagesima, but the focus of the beginning weeks of Ordinary Time is the same as Time After Epiphany.
So, are there really 40 days of Christmas? Well, yes and no. We celebrate 40 days from the Birth of Christ until the Feast of the Presentation. The liturgical colors and season don't reflect the Christmastide all the way to February 2nd in either calendar, but there is a focus on Christ's early life and divinity in the liturgy. Perhaps farther back in time there was more of a reflection of 40 days? I didn't find any, but please leave a comment if I'm completely off base.
Either way, my domestic church does not reflect the liturgical colors of the current liturgical season!
Written by Jennifer Gregory Miller.
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