What does December 26th mean to you?
For most people it means that Christmas is over. But for the Catholic Church, it means the celebration has just begun.
Many of us Catholics, however, are not aware of this. Our rhythm of celebrating Christmas is very much along the lines of the secular celebration. We put a massive amount of effort into preparing for December 25th…then, the very next day, we feel a bit blue.
“It’s over,” we think. We take down our Christmas lights, drag the tree out onto the curb, and return to our everyday lives.
Don’t! Stop right there.
The carols, the feasting, the lights, the joy, have only just commenced. We are about to rejoice in a long celebration of the birth of Christ, the Messiah.
There is a reason why Christmas is called a season. It does not last for a single day. We have been preparing for it for four weeks, and the Church couldn’t possibly start and end its celebration of Christ’s birth in one day. After Easter, Christmas is the most important liturgical feast in the Church calendar. Why? Because Christmas is what made Easter possible. Without Our Lord’s incarnation and birth, our redemption would not have been brought to completion, and there would be no hope for us in our fallen state.
So first, we celebrate the octave of Christmas. (The word “octave” refers to the number 8.) This means that there are eight official solemn days of rejoicing. In the language of the Church, the word “solemn” does not mean being grim, serious, or morose.
According to a simple definition: “In the Catholic Church year, a solemnity is the highest ranking holy day possible in the Church calendar…” These are days that are emphasized by particular joy, lavishness, pomp, and glory.
This might be harder to recognize in the life of lay people, but it’s unspeakably obvious in the religious life, where the Divine Office (the prayer known as the Liturgy of the Hours) practically shouts out Hallelujah! During the octave of Christmas, the office that is prayed each day—for eight straight days—is more or less the same office: the one for Christmas day.
Think about what that means: it means that we are celebrating each day, for eight days, as though each of them were Christmas day itself.