Silvester & The Twelve Days of Christmas (December 25th - January 5th) - The Great Awakening

Silvester & The Twelve Days of Christmas (December 25th - January 5th) 🗣️ DISCUSSION 💬

posted 2 years ago by bluewhiteandred 2 years ago by bluewhiteandred +8 / -0

https://infogalactic.com/info/Twelve_Days_of_Christmas

The Twelve Days of Christmas, also known as Twelvetide, is a festive Christian season to celebrate the nativity of Jesus. In most Western Church traditions Christmas Day is the First Day of Christmas and the Twelve Days are 25 December – 5 January.[1]

New Year's Eve on 31 December is the feast of Saint Sylvester and is known also as Silvester. The transition that evening to the new year is an occasion for secular festivities in many countries,and in several languages is known by names such as Saint Sylvester Night: Notte di San Silvestro in Italian, Silvesternacht in German, Réveillon de la Saint-Sylvestre in French, סילבסטר in Hebrew.

https://infogalactic.com/info/Silvester

Silvester (also spelled sylvester, szilveszter, or sylwester) is the day of the Feast of Pope Sylvester I, a saint who served as Pope of the Catholic Church from 314 to 335 and oversaw both the First Council of Nicaea and Roman Emperor Constantine I's conversion to Christianity.[1]

Back to first link:

Other liturgical feasts that fall within the Octave of Christmas and so also within the Twelve Days of Christmas and that are included in the General Roman Calendar are: Saint John the Apostle (27 December); the Holy Innocents (28 December); Saint Thomas Becket (29 December); and the Feast of the Holy Family (Sunday within the Octave of Christmas or, if there is no such Sunday, 30 December). Outside the Octave, but within the Twelve Days of Christmas, there are the celebrations of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus on 2 January, and the Memorial of the Holy Name of Jesus on 3 January.

Late Antiquity and Middle Ages

The Second Council of Tours of 567 noted that, in the area for which its bishops were responsible, the days between Christmas and Epiphany were, like the month of August, taken up entirely with saints' days. Monks were therefore in principle not bound to fast on those days.[11] However, the first three days of the year were to be days of prayer and penance so that faithful Christians would refrain from participating in the idolatrous practices and debauchery associated with the new year celebrations. The Fourth Council of Toledo (633) ordered a strict fast on those days, on the model of the Lenten fast.[12][13]

Celebrants observing the Twelve Days may give gifts on each of them, with each day of the Twelve Days representing a wish for a corresponding month of the new year. They feast and otherwise celebrate the entire time through Epiphany morning. Lighting a candle for each day has become a modern tradition in the U.S. and of course singing the appropriate verses of the famous song each day is also an important and fun part of the American celebrations. Some also light a Yule Log on the first night (Christmas) and let it burn some each of the twelve nights. Some Americans have their own traditional foods to serve each night.

For some, Twelfth Night remains the biggest night for parties and gift-giving. Some households exchange gifts on the first (25 December) and last (5 January) days of the season. As in olden days, Twelfth Night to Epiphany morning is then the traditional time to take down the Christmas tree and decorations.