Happy Epiphany! The 12th day of Christmas has arrived,

[DemBones DemBones]

and it's time to take the tree down and pack away all the Christmas ornaments, Nativity scenes, and the like.

Christmas ends and Lent will be here before you know it. I looked at a calendar yesterday and Ash Wednesday falls early this year, on February 9.

[AngryOldDem]

1. I have a question

Thanks for bringing up Epiphany.

I was a little surprised last weekend when I went to Mass and the Gospel was the Epiphany reading. For some reason I thought Epiphany would be celebrated this coming weekend. Has it always been the first weekend of the new year? I thought that was the Feast of the Holy Family, or Feast of St. Joseph...it just seemed too early for Epiphany.

This has been bugging me for almost a week now, but I've been hesitant to bring it up out of fear of looking stupid.

[Maeve]

4. Here's the rule

The first Sunday after Christmas we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. Epiphany is celebrated either on Jan. 6 or,according to the decision of the episcopal conference, on the Sunday between January 2 and January 8.

A good website for this sort of info is http://www.catholicculture.org/

[AngryOldDem]

5. Thanks!

[Hans Delbrook]

2. Tomorrow night

My husband and I will have our own little "Twelfth Night" party. I have pine branches in a vase as a centerpiece and we'll burn just a little bit of them in out fireplace, snuggle in front of it w/ the last of the egg nog and cookies. Saturday we take it all down. Sigh. It was a good Christmas.

[gardenista]

3. The Magi have arrived.

We have a small nativity scene, given to us by my beloved mother-in-law, who passed away in November. It was with special reverence that we placed the Magi in the manger this year.