Now we have entered the beautiful season of Christmas! I don’t care if radio stations aren’t playing Christmas music or if stores have begun setting up for Valentines Day…it is officially Christmas and we need to celebrate!  This week in particular is especially important because we are celebrating the Octave of Christmas.  Eight days where our Liturgy is just as festive as it was on Christmas Day.  We also have some pretty cool feast days that are celebrated in this Christmas season.  Below I offer brief explanations on each feast day:

December 26 - St. Stephen

St. Stephen is the first Marty of the Catholic Church and his martyrdom is recorded in the Acts of Apostles.  We celebrate him in this Christmas season as a reminder that we are called to give our lives for the Gospel.

December 27 - St. John the Apostle

Yes, this is the St. John who we believe wrote (or passed down orally) the Gospel of John.  We celebrate him during the Christmas Octave because of his beautiful theology explaining the Incarnation.  

December 28 - The Holy Innocents

This feast day serves two purposes.  First, when Christ was born we learn that Herod ordered the killing of all male babies after hearing that a king had been born in Bethlehem.  This is why in Matthews Gospel Joseph moves Jesus and Mary to Egypt as a way to protect Jesus.  We also celebrate this to remember all children who were never born or died too soon.  During the holiday season, its easy to lose that holiday cheer when remembering a child’s death.  

The Sunday between December 25 and January 1 - The Holy Family

While this feast day doesn’t have a specific date as the others do, it is celebrated every year during the Christmas Octave on Sunday.  Christmas Day is a celebration of the Incarnation (God becoming human).  On the Feast of the Holy Family we celebrate the whole family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and we look to them as a model family.  Remember though, at the time of Christ’s birth they were seen from the outside to be a broken family: Mary was pregnant with another mans child, they were homeless, and Joseph had thought about divorcing Mary during the pregnancy.  Think about that this coming Sunday.

January 1 - Mary, the Mother of God

This is the final day of the Christmas Octave and, more often than not, a Holy Day of Obligation.  Celebrating Mary as the Mother of God is something we take for granted today; but, during the early centuries of Christianity it was a contested issue.  Is Jesus really God?  How can a God be born of human?  How can God who has no creator also have a mother?  See how this can be a sticky and contentious celebration?

As we begin this Christmas Octave remember it’s a time for great joy and rejoicing!  The Prince of Peace has been born!  Go tell it on the mountains!  Celebrate at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!  TODAY IS BORN OUR SAVIOR, CHRIST THE LORD!