Christmas Calendar

DECEMBER
1	2	3	4	5 St. Nicholas's Eve	6 St. Nicholas's Day	7
8 Immaculate Conception	9	10	11	12 Dia de Guadalupe	13 St. Lucia's Day	14
15	16	17 Saturnalia	18 Saturnalia	19 Saturnalia	20 Saturnalia	21 Saturnalia Feast of St. Thomas
22 Saturnalia	23 Saturnalia	24 Saturnalia Christmas Eve	25 Christmas Day	26 St. Stephen's Day Boxing Day 1st of 12 Days	27 Feast of St John the Evangelist 2nd of 12 Days	28 Massacre of the Holy Innocents 3rd of 12 Days
29 4th of 12 Days	30 5th of 12 Days	31 New Year's Eve 6th of 12 Days

JANUARY
1 New Year's Day 7th of 12 Days	2 8th of 12 Days	3 9th of 12 Days	4 10th of 12 Days	5 11th of 12 Days	6 Twelfth Night Old Christmas Day Epiphany Day of the Three Kings Little Christmas	7

5 St. Nicholas's Eve In Holland, parties are held in his honour.

6 St. Nicholas's Day (Europe)

8 Immaculate Conception or (Latin America) Feast of Purissima: day of prayer

12 Dia de Guadalupe (Latin America) celebrates the appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe, patron saint of South American Indians.

13 St. Lucia's Day (Denmark)

17-24 Saturnalia

Ancient Roman festival celebrated every winter for seven days, in honour of Saturn, the god of agriculture, from whose name we get Saturday. There were processions through the streets, candles were lit to symbolize the rebirth of the year, houses were decorated with greenery and presents were exchanged. Masters gave their slaves gifts, men dressed as women or masqueraded in the hides of animals. A dried bean was hidden in food and whoever found it was elected king of the revels. These traditions found their way to all parts of the Empire, blending with customs that already existed and influencing the way in which people celebrated the end of the year.

21 Feast of St. Thomas

24 Christmas Eve

25 Christmas Day

This date is near the shortest day of the year, and from old times has been an important agricultural and solar feasting period in Europe. The best fit seemed to be around Saturnalia. Moreover, in 273 Emperor Aurelianus had invented a new pagan religion, the cult of Sol Invictus (invincible sun, the same as the Iranian god Mithra), the birthday of this god being 25th December (natalis sol invicti). The Christian priests obviously saw this choice as doubly meritorious: using the old customary and popular feasting date but changing the rough pagan ways into a more civilized commemoration. The first mention of the birthday of Jesus is from the year 354. Gradually all Christian churches, except Armenians (celebrating 6th January which date is for others the baptismal day of Jesus and the day of the three Magi), accepted the day.

26 Boxing Day

legal holiday in England. The custom of boxing derives from the opening of alms boxes in church on December 26, the Feast of St. Stephen, to distribute the collected money to the poor. The idea was picked up by apprentices and assistants, who would take a Christmas box around to their employer's customers, asking for tips in return for their service during the year. Eventually children picked up the practice, making it a sort of trick or treat.

26 St. Stephen's Day

26-6 Twelve Days of Christmas

The Celts believed that the sun stood still for 12 days during the winter solstice. Our twelve days of Christmas may have started with this belief. In the middle ages, religious holidays were virtually the only holidays, so everyone was eager to extend such celebrations as long as possible. Christmas in particular was extended from a one day event to 12 days from Christmas Day to the Epiphany. In wealthy castles, a gift on each of the 12 days was quite common. This made "The Twelve Days of Christmas" a very popular song in anticipation of the gifts to come. It is not certain how old this carol is, but it probably dates back as far as the 16th century.

27 Feast of St John the Evangelist

28 Massacre of the Holy Innocents

Despite its name, it is a time for the playing of practical jokes in Latin America

31 New Year's Eve

1 New Year's Day

6 Twelfth Night

From the middle ages until the mid-nineteenth century, Twelfth Night was more popular than Christmas day.

6 Old Christmas Day

6 Epiphany

In Latin America, gifts are usually given today. Is a Greek word meaning "to show." It marked the "showing" of Jesus to the outside world when he was visited by the Magi. Traditional end of the Christmas holiday and is the date on which we take down the tree and decorations. To do so earlier is thought to bring bad luck for the rest of the year. Even today some countries celebrate Epiphany as the most important day of the Christmas season

6 Day of the Three Kings

6 Little Christmas

2 Candlemas Day Feast of Candelaria