Good will extended

wonderful thing for Saturday, Jan. 3: the true Twelve Days of Christmas. Even though Italians do not celebrate Thanksgiving, and so do not have that prolonged period of festivity that we enjoy, still they do have a lovely tradition of making merry for several days, being the Twelve Days of Christmas. And even though in the States, we hear that Christmas carol ad infinitum (I never tire of it though), by and large we are unaware of exactly what those twelve days are about, unless we are Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists, etc. Most Americans I know think of them as being the twelve days leading up to Christmas, when in fact they are the days, generally speaking, from Dec. 26 to Jan. 6. Many minor feast days are celebrated during that time, beginning with the Feast of St. Stephen (as referred to in the carol, "Good King Wenceslaus"), and culminating in Epiphany on Jan. 6, which is generally viewed as the day the Magi came to worship the Christ Child. I think it's a lovely tradition. Americans, I think, tend to feel a bit of a let down after Christmas, but the Twelve Days tradition keeps the good will and the focus going for another almost two weeks (of course, this is always given the willingness of the merry makers to maintain that spirit). To me this feels a more appropriate way to commemorate the birth of the Christ child, even though some of the festivity may not be based on true doctrine; its overall effect is to continue the focus on Christ, and who can fault that trend? I suggested more than once, as our family was growing, that we keep Christmas mostly spiritually based, focusing on the birth of the Savior, and maybe just opening Christmas stockings, then opening all our gifts on Jan. 6, celebrating the gifts brought by the Wise Men. This suggestion had a partially ulterior motive, that of being able to take advantage of all the after-Christmas sales for gift-giving - but who can fault that either? fun thing: On the eve of Epiphany, la Befana comes (yes, down the chimney)on her broomstick (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Befana), and leaves in your "Befana stocking" either goodies or coal. There is a current ad visible on signs and in stores, of La Befana with "Bueno", a chocolate candy by Kinder. The caption says "Bueno for me, Coal for you." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdWykJwlcf4) Cute.