Now Christmas is over

Happy Feast of the Epiphany.
This day, Jan. 6, marks the formal end to the Christmas season. This is the day the three king (makers) paid homage to Jesus after a star led them to the house where Jesus and his mother were. Yes, house, not stable, and Joseph, the shepherds, and barnyard animals are all absent. They are all in Luke’s version.
The stories get mixed up in popular culture. The Christmas schedule does too, come to think of it, both before and after the Big Day. The weeks before Christmas Day are Advent in the Christian calendar and should be days of quiet reflection. Instead they are filled with frenzied shopping, wrapping, mailing, and housecleaning. Christmas morning is frenzied with unwrapping and the day after Christmas brings more frenzied shopping. Some people even hurry to clean up their Christmas clutter, not just discarded wrappings, but even the tree and decorations.
The trees and decorations stay up until January 1 or 2 in most households, though. Then the holidays are over, on the secular calendar. Christmas light displays go dark. Denuded pine trees get tossed to the curb. The stores relegate any lingering Christmas merchandise to a corner, bearing a “90 percent off” sign. Meanwhile employees with forklifts bring in gardening equipment and tiki lamps in preparation for spring planting and the summer’s first barbeque.
Life goes on, but does have to be that fast? Let us enjoy the final night of Christmas and send the season out with aplomb, and flames. One parish I attended years ago made a big deal out of Epiphany. They had three magi in full costume, spicy food, and a king cake. The night’s festivities culminated in a bonfire. All the Christmas greenery from the sanctuary was set wonderfully ablaze, under the watchful eye of the fire marshal, of course. It was a wonderfully declarative conclusion.
Years ago I learned to my great relief that *proper* Episcopalians and other liturgically inclined Western Christians keep their trees up through January 6. I have always kept mine up as long as possible, not wanting to let go of the season. I will take my tree down tomorrow, maybe. Before the summer’s first barbeque, probably.
Here is a list of materials about Epiphany traditions and liturgies.