Here is how the brilliant Benedictine Abbot Dom Prosper GuГ©ranger helps us understand the totality of the mystery of Christmastide: On this day, the faithful take candles that they will use throughout the year in their homes to Mass to have them blessed. In the old rite, or what we today call the Extraordinary Form, Christmastide lasted for forty days to correspond with the forty days of Lent, and the forty days from Easter to Ascension Thursday.ДЄ forty-day party? Gloria in Excelsis! (And people say Trad Cats are a dour bunch.)Д¬hristmastide ended on February 2, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also called Candlemas Day. And if you want to be really traditional, you can celebrate what the faithful called вЂњChristmastideвЂќ before the liturgical reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council. This year, Catholics may very well wish to keep their decorations up through January 9.

(Catholic AnswersвЂ™ Christmas party will be on Epiphany-and at a local brewery, Alesmith, owned by good friends of the apostolate.)Д«ut the celebrating doesnвЂ™t stop there! After Epiphany, the revelry continues until the Baptism of the Lord, the first Sunday after January 6 (usually). Twelfth Night, as our English brethren call it, is an event Catholics in America should celebrate with more enthusiasm (think: roaring bonfires, grilled meat, lots of singing, red wine, brown ale) and might very well do if it were observed here on the liturgical calendar on January 6 as it is in England, Australia, and Canada, to say nothing of Vatican City.

She does not end our celebration of the Incarnation with the conclusion of the Octave of Christmas. The Church, however, is so generous with joy.

When should i put up my christmas tree