Merry Little Christmas

Yes, my decorations are still up...purposefully so...I wouldn’t dream of taking them down before January 6, the traditional Epiphany, or what we referred to growing up as “little Christmas.”

Today if you hear about Epiphany traditions, most likely it will be coverage of various Latino countries and peoples’ celebration...where it is known as “Three Kings Day” and in many families, when the children receive their main holiday gifts.

A little research uncovers many different incarnations of the celebration of the Epiphany, varying from country to country. There are April Fools activities in England, where it is known as “Twelfth Night”. In Germany and other northern European countries, children go door to door as ‘star singers’ and receive sweets. In Italy, Befana the old woman or witch brings sweets or coal by riding her broomstick and coming down the chimneys!

Another Epiphany tradition is blessing of the house, and I think this must be why we always recognized, if not celebrated the feast day when I was young. I distinctly remember our parish priest coming by with the chalk and holy water. (Visitors were a big deal in our house...not too many outsiders ventured into our zoo of six children aged five and under...our family doctor blessedly made house calls, and that’s the only other person besides aunts and uncles that I remember actually coming across the threshold.) I would have probably been helping with the cleaning process in preparation for the blessing, so the memory would have been made more vivid by the build-up as my mother assigned us tasks to help her suitably prepare the downstairs rooms. Let’s just say it would have been a LOUD process.

We attended a Polish parish, and I do remember Father Bruno—large, bald, accented; his image and voice is burned in my memory not from the house blessings but from when I later attended St. Hedwig’s School and he would visit the classrooms and tell us stories of how he was tortured in Nazi Germany. With a thick block of yellow chalk, he marked the wall above each threshold:

19 + C + M + B + 63

Father Bruno’s writing, like his enunciation, was rather exotic, and I’m sure he blessed the house in Latin, so the whole process was rather intriguing and a little bit spooky. It wasn’t until recently that I learned that the letters C, M, B come from the traditional names for the three kings—Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar—and can also represent “Christus Mansionem Benedicat” or “may Christ bless this dwelling!”

Remembering the house blessings and how important the ritual was for my mother helps me understand my irritation at the Catholic Church’s moving the Feast Day to January 2 this past year. I guess I hadn’t realized that this move has been going on for a while, and while doing Internet research, I found one poster who called it, “fast food mentality, move everything to Sunday for convenience.”

That opinion resonated with me; what exactly, is the rush? Where are we all going?

Today I was driving back home after having my car repaired at the same time that the elementary busses were picking up their passengers. As I stopped and waited, I found myself near the Tim Horton’s that Joe and I used to visit on Friday mornings before his elementary school day began. It was a ritual that I treasured, the almost-start of the weekend and a time to just talk about nothing. I often verbalize to friends and family “I wish I was there to have a cup of coffee with you!” And they say back, “I know, me too!!!” whole-heartedly, because we both know what kind of time we’re wishing for. We crave gentle conversation and just soaking up each other’s company.

Reading about the Epiphany, I found out about some traditions that I had never heard of. In Ireland, January 6 is known as “Nollaig na mBan” or “Little Women’s Christmas”. Begun in rural counties, it’s a day when women finally get a break, and the men take over the housework. Mothers get special gifts and get to go out with other women to relax. Now that sounds like a Merry Little Christmas to me!