Why Are There Twelve Days Of Christmas

By contrast the twelve days of christmas aren t a holiday countdown in fact that time period doesn t even start until christmas and it stretches until epiphany on january 6.

Why are there twelve days of christmas. Christmas is too glorious for just one day. So bright is the radiance of the light which has come at christmas so awesome is the mystery we celebrate that a single day s observance barely initiates us into the meaning of the feast. It s a fact of the calendar yes but it s more than that. These are made popular by the extremely famous song the twelve days of christmas.

The real reason that christmas is 12 days is that the feast is too glorious for just one day. The 12 days of christmas are now most famous as a song about someone receiving lots of presents from their true love. The twelve days of christmas also known as twelvetide is a festive christian season celebrating the nativity of jesus in most western ecclesiastical traditions christmas day is considered the first day of christmas and the twelve days are 25 december through 5 january inclusive for many christian denominations for example the anglican communion and lutheran church the twelve days. The twelve days do not begin on december 14 but on christmas day.

However to get to the song there had to be the days to start with. This is a very common mistake in a town like mine where any sort of liturgical tradition is almost completely unheard of. The twelve days of christmas begin on the evening of december 25th and continue till epiphany jan. Can you imagine the christmas season without the ten lords a leaping nine ladies dancing and eight maids a.

For those who haven t heard this before the twelve days talk about twelve gifts that a lady receives from her true love. The 12 days of christmas. Which gets at the deeper reason why there are 12 days of christmas. The length of the celebration comes from the number of days between the nativity and the theophany that is between christ s birth and christ s baptism noted on calandars as epiphany.

The 12 days of christmas start on christmas day and last until the evening of the 5th january also known as twelfth night. Why are there 12 days of christmas. There s a lot more to the 12 days of christmas than the famous christmas carol. By understanding why the clerics chose the twelve days as wrapping for their poem the full impact of the list tradition of the twelve days of christmas can be understood.

Too much for one day.