No I'm not barmy. And yes, I know we are already two weeks AFTER that great day when the Light shone on the world just over 2,000 years ago. BUT, believe it or not, there are those of us who are still celebrating this event this week. In fact, in Italy, an old crone (or flying witch) named La Befana delivers gifts to deserving girls and boys 12 days after Christmas on January 6, Epiphany, and is a celebration of the visit by the three wise men to the baby Jesus. La Befana is derived from Epifania, the Italian for Epiphany.
In the distant past the people of Italy thought this Christmas witch was evil. They rang clay bells and made noise to keep her away. Now she is viewed as a gentle spirit that will give gifts to the children of Italy. According to the Italian legend, La Befana lived on the road the three wise men took on their journey to visit the baby Jesus. The three wise men on camels loaded down with gifts, approached La Befana’s house as she was busy working. They stopped to ask directions to Bethlehem and to ask if she could provide them with food and shelter for the night, and also to see if she might join them on their journey. La Befana was too busy to talk to the wise men. Later she changed her mind and decided she should have gone with the wise men after all. Gathering up some gifts she herself set off in search of the Christ Child. Like the three wise men she followed the bright star shining in the sky. She was not able to find the stable where the Christ Child lay.
But Befana did not give up and to this day is said to be still looking in every home for the Christ Child. She flies on her broom to each house that is home to a child. La Befana leaves gifts in every house she visits in case one of them happens to be the Christ Child. If a child is particularly naughty she is said to leave a lump of coal in their house.
On a more realistic level, there are still Christian communities that follow the Julian calendar who observe Christmas on January 7th, 13 days after the Gregorian-calendar Christmas (which we generally use in the West). So, to our Christian brothers and sisters who celebrate today (as pictured here) – including Ukrainians, Russians, Serbians, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Romanians, Belarusians and others – we wish you a very Merry Christmas!BUT why TWO dates for Christmas in, so to speak, the same Church? One explanation I read (by Canadian Fr. Stephen Wojcichowsky) goes that these are not two different dates. It’s the same date, Dec. 25th…. He says: "Imagine you have two transparent leafs for each calendar. When you superimpose the Julian calendar onto the Gregorian calendar, you see that December 25th on the Julian calendar falls on January 7 of the Gregorian calendar. In fact, all of the dates that are on the Julian calendar are the same as for the Gregorian calendar – it’s just that they are separated by 13 days. When the Gregorian calendar leapt forward in the 16th century, it advanced the calendar by 10 days. The gap between the calendars keeps widening every century or so. Now we are 13 days apart; in 2100 we will be 14 days apart. By then, December 25th on the Julian calendar will fall on January 8th of the Gregorian calendar".
Fr Stephen adds that other faith traditions base their religious festivals on the lunar calendar (as in the Islamic tradition) or on a combination of solar and lunar calendars (as in the Jewish tradition). Muslims celebrate Ramadan at different parts of the year depending on their lunar calculations. The Jewish people celebrate Hanukkah more or less at the same time as Christmas but it doesn’t always fall on the same day in December. The Julian calendar December 25th always falls on January 7th, and then it’ll be fixed on January 8th for another 100 years. Even so the Gregorian calendar is not astronomically accurate anymore.
But having said all this, what is the real importance of this - or any - major celebration where the Almighty Good is involved? Is the date that crucial to our belief that we forget that Christmas really should be simply a moment that reminds us believe that it is a time when not only human beings are renewed by the Lord’s birth but all of creation which was touched by the Incarnation? In the Catholic liturgy, Christmastime really reaches its fulfillment in the feast of the Baptism of the Lord - Jesus inaugurating his divine mission on earth - that's next Sunday 10th. The feast seemingly brings to an end the Christmas season, but Christmas nonetheless really ends with the feast of the Presentation of the Lord on Feb. 2. So we can continue to cheer each other up with Merry Christmases for quite a while longer...and celebrate that He came, and He is still with us...no matter when He was born! May we not be like La Befana, who was given the opportunity to see and behold the Light yet thought that being busy with day-to-day chores was more important. Nonetheless, if we are like her, then may the Almighty Good open our eyes to the reality that we may drop everything and go in His search...and continue to do so till we do find Him. (Acknowledgments for parts of this post to http://saltandlighttv.org/blog)
