Christmas comes but once a year, but it hangs around for 12 days! Today, Friday, January 5th, is the 12th day, and you know what that means, don't you? Drummers drumming! Along with the pipers and the dancers and the whole lot of them back to the partridge in the pear tree. What a racket. I am back in the office after a nice break and blissfully free of lords-a-leaping or ladies dancing, but only because the elementary school doesn't open again until Monday. (Our office is situated directly under a music classroom, so we basically get the twelve days of Christmas year-round).
The Twelve Days are immediately followed in our tradition by another holiday: Epiphany, on January 6th. Epiphany represents the Visit of the Magi, or Three Kings, bearing gifts to the newborn Christ Child. Some say we should keep our Christmas trees up until Epiphany, perhaps because the stars on top of them are symbolically guiding those famous late-comers, the Wise Men, to the stable. My tree didn't make it this year as it was so dry we feared it might spontaneously combust. So the tree is out to the curb, the garbage and recycling have been picked up, most of the cookies have been gobbled, and we just have to figure out how to keep the spirit of Christmas in our hearts for another twelve months!
At Southwest we always celebrate Epiphany on the Sunday closest to the 6th, which this year is the 7th of January, and we always have a potluck after the 10AM service. Well, it's called the "feast" of Epiphany, so why not? If you would like to contribute a dish, you can just bring it with you to church. Happy New Year to all / Bonne Année à tous!
Amy
EPIPHANY POTLUCK
SUNDAY JANUARY 7TH, FOLLOWING SERVICE (~11:30)
SOUTHWEST UNITED,
1445 CLEMENCEAU, VERDUN