CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEARS: TRADITIONS AND SUPERSTITIONS

It's Friday, January 4. I am sure my neighbors are wondering why there is still a wreath on my door. If they could peak in, they'd see my Christmas tree is still standing, fully decorated. I am one of those persons who follows the tradition of twelve days of Christmas. The twelve days are not the twelve days BEFORE Christmas. Christmas doesn't even start until December 25. Of course by the Christian liturgical calendar, Christmas begins with first vespers of Christmas on December 24, any time after 3 p.m. I notice that the new Lutheran calendar concludes Christmas with the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6 and the days after are counted as being after Epiphany not days in the season of Epiphany. That makes sense to me, so my tree doesn't come down until January 6. I don't usually put it up until at least the first week in December, or more frequently the second week. There was a time when I followed the practice of waiting until Christmas eve, but that just proved too hectic. Besides, if you wait too long. All the good trees are gone and the tree places are already selling New Years fire works.

It came as something of a surprise to me then that there are a good many people who believe it is bad luck to have the tree up on New Years day. It's something about bringing the old year into the new year. I've also hear a weird explanation about the celebration of Christ's birth being completed in one year and no dragged into the next year, but that comes from somebody who doesn't understand the New Year in Christian calendar begins with the first Sunday in Advent, four Sundays before Christmas. January 1 as New Years is a civil Holiday. In my church's calendar it is the Festival of Jesus' Name.

It's not just the tree that keeps Christmas going for me until January 6. I am still drinking my very special Spirit de Noel tea which I never have the rest of the year, despite how wonderful it tastes. (Actually at $14 for a quarter pound plus shipping, I can't afford to drink it any other time.) I have just finished the last slice of Christmas stollen. I make my own. It's much better than any store bought stollen. Mine is moister and only has fruit in it, no nuts. It's flavored with cinnamon and cardamom. Actually there are two more stollen in the freezer for later in the year. I used to bake for other people (nine loaves one year), but it is just too time consuming. I usually bake on the morning of Christmas Eve while I'm listening to the Festival of Lessons and Carols from Kings College Cambridge.

When it's possible, (this year it wasn't) I like to take a more relaxed approach to work during the Christmas season. The month leading up to it is often exhausting. Fortunately, most people "front-load" Christmas celebrations. Everything is planned between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Thus I have more time to myself. For years I had a custom of reading Dickens Christmas Carol in the days before Christmas. Some years back I changed to Masefield's Box of Delights, and watched the Alistair Sim version of Scrooge on DVD when I returned from church services. Only problem was that I would fall asleep and miss most of it. This year I started reading Midnight for Charlie Bone, one of the series by Jenny Nimmo. I bought a like-new copy on line. The book ends about Christmas time, so it fits. I just needed something easier to read for awhile.

For New Years eve I usually read Dorothy L. Sayers The Nine Tailorswhich, of course, starts on New Years Eve. Lately I have been watching a video based on the story. This year I'm ushering at the Civic Theatre for the performance of "I love you, You're Perfect, Now Change." I figure I don't have anything better to do that evening. I am slightly apprehensive about being out on New Years Eve. When I lived in Wisconsin I celebrated the occasions at someone's house. On the way home that night my car slid off the road and into a snow filled ditch. I spent the next morning having it towed out. So generally I spend the evening at home. This year I went out, sort of. I ushered at the Civic Theatre and stayed to watch "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change." I was home by 10:30 however.

My family had certain superstitions connected with this holiday. On my father's side there was the belief that the first food eaten in the new year must be pickled herring. That's something I always try to follow. Once I left a party because they ran out of herring before midnight and I didn't want to start by eating the wring food. On my mother's side there was a belief that you should never eat chicken on New Years Day. The idea is that a chicken scratches the ground, and if you eat chicken, you'll scratch for a living the whole year.

How much do I believe in superstitions and how much do I just carry on what has been a tradition? I don't know. I'm just very conscious of my roots.

By the way, the picture at the head is of my Grandma Kofink, taken at Midnight. January 1, 1969. It was grandma's last New Year and the last picture I ever took of her.

May your New Year be filled with delights. And may the Lord God bless you on your way and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne