Tuesday, December 25, 2018

On the First Day of Christmas


American custom is such that we are all in a tizzy over the season by the time the actual day, December 25, gets here, but a long-standing tradition had those twelve days of Christmas fixed so that the sequence began on that very day. While we may be over with the merrymaking after the close of the day today, our ancestors may have just begun.

I was curious to see what the traditional holiday sequence of the twelve days of Christmas might have included. After all, for those of us with European roots, knowing that would bring us closer to understanding just how our ancestors celebrated the event. Of course, the phrase, "twelve days of Christmas" immediately brings to mind the carol by that title. Along with the long-winded ditty's many parodies—and even hoaxes—the custom of the twelve days itself has its explanations shared online, too, both lightweight and serious.

Terms like Boxing Day, or the Feast of the Innocents, have remained tucked away in the far reaches of my memory. I recall hearing such terms, and associating them with some fuzzy link to the Christmas season, but never thought to follow the trail back through my own generations to see if any of my ancestors might have held such traditions in our own family lines.

True to form as your Genealogical Guinea Pig, I thought I'd take this Christmas week to see what I could find, and hope you will join in on this lazy researcher's casual tour of the official names for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas. While I am far from being equipped to report on what my kazillionth great grandfather might have been up to on the twelfth century rendition of the Feast of Saint Egwin, at least we can surmise what the Christmas season was like for those ancestors for whom we have at least a hazy picture of their life's ups and downs.

In the meantime, in whatever holiday traditions your family has handed down to you and yours, may you have a peaceful holiday season with those who mean the most to you.



Above: "Adoration of the Shepherds," oil on canvas by seventeenth century Dutch Golden Age artist, Gerard van Honthorst; courtesy Wikipedia; in the public domain.

6 comments:

  1. Boxing Day..... it has been decades since I registered that term yet my cousins had a Boxing Day Party EVERY year !!!!!

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    1. Interesting that your cousins had a specific way to celebrate Boxing Day. I've heard the term, so it's been in my consciousness, but have never known anyone to actually acknowledge it in any way. Not sure why my mind latched on to that concept...

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  2. This should be interesting Jacqi! I will be writing out my Christmas cards and mailing them today!

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    1. Well, that is an appropriate way to celebrate Christmas, by sending out Christmas greetings! It makes all the sense in the world...until you realize how our culture has pushed the Christmas celebration's start back to November in our modern, unofficial calendar.

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  3. I should have added "on the first day of Christmas"

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    1. Yes, Kat! And we have relatives who hold their main celebration on Epiphany, so they are entirely in order, as you are, in sending out their Christmas greetings "on the first day of Christmas."

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