Book of Days

FIRST DAY of CHRISTMAS:
St. Stephen’s Day, Boxing Day, Day of the Wren

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day have passed, and now we enter into the Twelve Days of Christmas. And I know I will hear from some of you that Christmas Day is one of those Twelve Days, and this is true in some traditions: in those that are more churchly. But since Christmas is an old pagan holiday that was reinvented by the Church, I feel more comfortable following the older traditions in this case. Those traditions would place six of our Twelve Days at the end of the old year and six at the start of the new year, and there is an unspoken magic in this balance, as well as in the fact that there is one day of Christmas for each month of the year that has passed.

If you are feeling a bit deflated now that Christmas Day has passed, you’re not alone. It is a very common feeling in a world that rushes headlong into Christmas in early autumn and then unplugs the holiday on the 26th of December. But as the crowning of the year, with the old year dying and the new year on its way, these Twelve Days stand outside ordinary time: It is Yuletide, Christmastide… and I will do my best to offer you suggestions, based in tradition but updated where necessary, to bring the most to this Christmas season. We begin with St. Stephen’s Day on this First Day of Christmas.

Stephen was the first Christian martyr, and so the Church assigned this first day of Christmas to him. In Italy, this is a day for roasted chestnuts and mulled wine (as is tomorrow, St. John’s Day: the Second Day of Christmas). My Aunt Anne and my mom say that my grandmother, Assunta, typically made soup for supper on this First Day of Christmas, when we remember Santo Stefano. The soup was a nice break from the rich fare of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Over in Ireland, it is the Day of the Wren. It is the wren that is traditionally thought to have brought bad luck upon the imprisoned Stephen, who was making his escape when a wren alerted the sleeping guards to the situation. His capture lead to his execution and martyrdom. Wrens were traditionally hunted on this First Day of Christmas, then paraded around town.

And in England and the Commonwealth countries, it is Boxing Day. Servants typically had to work on Christmas Day, but the First Day of Christmas was their day to spend with their families. Their employers would send them home with boxes of gifts for themselves and for the families they were heading home to.

Tonight, join us in raising a glass of mulled wine and cracking open some roasted chestnuts for this First Day of Christmas. The mad rush is over, and now we can enjoy Christmas in our own time.

Image: Our daily advent candle, illuminated for breakfast on Christmas Day. All through December we burned the candle an hour at a time day by day, counting down the days to Christmas. Now that Christmas is here, why would we rush it away?