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lambchopwife
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| Posted: Jan 13 2010 at 8:39pm | IP Logged
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When does the church stop the Christmas season? I always thought that is was on Candlemas? Our priest is saying it was with the baptism of Jesus. Does anyone know? Also, a lady who is giving us instruction at church says that Jesus didn't become Christ until His baptism, I've never heard of this can someone explain.
Thanks,
Cheryl
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MaryM
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Regarding the first part of the question. The reformed liturgical calendar designates the Sunday after Epiphany, the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, as the end of the Christmas liturgical season. Before the revision of the General Roman Calendar, there was a period referred to as the Christmas Section of the Cycle which did extend to Candlemas (Presentation of the Lord) as it would be 40 days after Christmas. The current shorter period and the removal of other octaves were to bring the focus back to Easter and the Resurrection, the central part of our calendar.
The Baptism of Our Lord is an older thread where this topic (and the date for Epiphany and Baptism of the Lord) is discussed a bit.
And Jenn has a long post in this thread which talks about the calendar and the reasoning behind revisions.
Second part of the question: I don't know if this person was misinformed or there was a confusion in the explanation, but that is not what the Church teaches. The Church definitely teaches that Jesus was Christ from the time of his conception/incarnation.
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JennGM
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lambchopwife wrote:
| When does the church stop the Christmas season? I always thought that is was on Candlemas? Our priest is saying it was with the baptism of Jesus. |
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I talked about this originally here, but to elaborate:
With the old calendar and new calendar, the Christmas season ends with the Baptism of Jesus.
There are different seasons through the Liturgical Year.
In the New Calendar (or Ordinary Form)
1. Advent (violet vestments)
2. Christmas (white vestments)
3. Ordinary Time (1) (green vestments)
4. Lent (violet vestments)
5. Easter (white vestments)
6. Ordinary Time (2) (green vestments)
In the Traditional Calendar (or Extraordinary Form)
1. Advent (violet vestments)
2. Christmas (white vestments)
3. Time After Epiphany (translates to our Ordinary Time, green vestments)
4. Septuagesima (70 days before Lent) (still part of Ordinary Time in current calendar) (violet vestments)
5. Lent (or Quadragesima) (violet vestments)
6. Easter or Paschaltide (white vestments)
7. Time after Pentecost (corresponds to Ordinary Time) (green vestments)
In the calendar there is an idea of a two CYCLES. There is the Temporal Cycle, which includes all the seasons of the liturgical year, and then the sanctoral cycle, which is the saints of the year.
In the Extraordinary or Traditional Calendar there is a further division of Sections within the Temporal Cycle. First, there is the Christmas Section, which celebrates and emphasizes the Mystery of the Incarnation, 40 days with the Gospels and feasts pointing to Christmas until the feast of Candlemas, February 2nd which included Advent, Christmas, and Time After Epiphany. The Easter Section would include Septuagesima, Lent, Easter, and Time After Pentecost and celebrates and emphasizes the mystery of the Redemption.
The two Sections aren't emphasized as much in the current calendar, as there is more pointing towards the Paschal Mystery as center and focal point for the entire year. But yet, there are certain feasts that point back to Christmas, and Candlemas (February 2) is one.
So when one says Christmas season for the Liturgy, it is referring to the time from Christmas to the Baptism of the Lord, and the priest wears white vestments through that whole period.
Time after Epiphany is the next Season in the Traditional Calendar, with the priest wearing green vestments. This is the same as Ordinary Time.
"The Time after Epiphany includes from one to five Sundays; it recalls to use the hidden life of Christ at Nazareth, and manifests to us His divinity." This time would be part of the Christmas Section of the Temporal Cycle, but not the Christmas Season, and would end on Candlemas.
I found this interesting to me that the Church's calendar never changed the amount of days in the Christmas season. It is the same amount of season in both calendars and ends on the Baptism of the Lord in both calendars.
lambchopwife wrote:
| Also, a lady who is giving us instruction at church says that Jesus didn't become Christ until His baptism, I've never heard of this can someone explain. |
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To put it bluntly, this is incorrect. Jesus knew He was God from the beginning, and was always God and man from the moment of His incarnation.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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MaryM
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| Posted: Jan 14 2010 at 1:55am | IP Logged
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I see Jenn did jump in with the more detailed explanation of the first question. 
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JennGM
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| Posted: Jan 14 2010 at 8:09am | IP Logged
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Jenngm wrote:
lambchopwife wrote:
| Also, a lady who is giving us instruction at church says that Jesus didn't become Christ until His baptism, I've never heard of this can someone explain. |
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To put it bluntly, this is incorrect. Jesus knew He was God from the beginning, and was always God and man from the moment of His incarnation. |
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I was going to bed last night, so sorry I was short about this.
There is an excellent Out-of-print book by Father William Most called The Consciousness of Christ which discusses this. It can be found online here.
There are some shorter answers online also by Father Most:
The Ignorant Jesus
The Human Knowledge of Jesus
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JennGM
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| Posted: Jan 14 2010 at 9:04am | IP Logged
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I had some other thoughts illuminating the end of the Christmas season:
First of all, it's been mentioned before, but the Church's calendar is divided into two cycles: Temporal (time) and Sanctoral (saints). The Temporal Cycle consists of the feasts in the life of Christ and includes the various seasons: Advent, Christmas, Ordinary Time, Lent, Easter, (and the Traditional names Septuagesima, Time After Epiphany, Time after Pentecost).
I think some confusion is the idea that both Christmas and Easter have 40 days in the season. Two notes about that: Easter is the highest feast of the year, and so the prominence of that feast is always illuminated, both in the current (reformed in 1969) and older, traditional calendars.
There are 40 days from Christmas until Candlemas, so there is a little imitation of the Easter structure, but not in total. The following applies to both calendars:
Easter Season:
- Easter Sunday
- Octave of Easter
- 40 days of the Easter season until Pentecost.
- Priest wears white vestments throughout the season (except Pentecost which is red)
Christmas Season (or Christmastide):
- Christmas
- Octave of Christmas
- 20 days of Christmas fixed for Traditional/1962 calendar, ending on Baptism of Our Lord, January 13 (see Christmas schema).
- The number of days in the current calendar varies, as the Baptism of the Lord is usually moved to a Sunday. This year the season was 17 days.
- The vestment color is white, although there are feast days which will override the white throughout the octave.
After Baptism of the Lord, the Christmas season ends.
- Ordinary Time begins (1-12 weeks) for current calendar
- Time After Epiphany begins (4-38 days) for traditional calendar
- Vestment color is green
I know I am going on and on. My first post was illustrating the Sections of the Cycles vs. seasons.
Quote:
The Christmas Section of the Temporal Cycle celebrates and emphasizes the Mystery of the Incarnation.
The Easter Section of the Temporal Cycle celebrates and emphasizes the Mystery of the Redemption. |
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I had always heard the Christmas season lasts until Candlemas, and that when the current calendar was reformed, it changed this.
I was very surprised when I pulled out all my old missals (some back to 1949) that this was never the case and did further research. It never was the Christmas season until Candlemas! But there was a pointing back to the Christmas with the Christmas Section of the Temporal Cycle (Time after Epiphany) so that makes more sense. The violet vestments are pulled out sooner in the traditional calendar, pointing to the Easter Section of the Temporal Cycle. There is a more clear "division" of sections in the temporal cycle.
I know this won't necessarily clear it up. Everyone has memories or hears a person say "Christmas lasts until Candlemas". And there's no hard fast rule that says you have to take down the creche or Christmas decorations at any time! This is popular piety, and there is much room for personal interpretation of how to worship in the home. I'm just presenting what is the Church's official "seasons".
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JennGM
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Oh, and one more thing. There are several feast days throughout the year that point back to the Christmas Section, or the Mystery of the Incarnation. We can call them Christmas Feasts, even though some aren't even close to the Christmas season:
Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, February 2nd (aka Purification of Mary, Candlemas)
Solemnity of the Annunciation, March 25 (aka the Incarnation)
In lesser ways, but still connected to Christmas are:
Feast of the Visitation of Mary, May 31 (July 2nd in Extraordinary Form)
Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist, June 24th
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lambchopwife
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I forgot to say thank you ladies! 
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Christine
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The first time that I read that the Christmas season ended on Candlemas was in Around the Year with the Trapp Family. When we attended a Polish parish, the priest kept the Christmas decorations up until February 2. He called the time between the Baptism of Our Lord and the Feast of Candlemas, "Little Christmas". Regina Doman (or her husband) has a Polish background and she refers to Little Christmas on her blog. I now go to a Tridentine Rite parish and my pastor says that Christmastide ends on the Feast of Candlemas. Page 1 of the Liturgical Year, Volume 2 (1868) by Prosper Gueranger explains that Christmastide is the 40 days from Christmas to February 2.
We started preparing for Lent on January 31 (date changes each year) with the Season of Septuagesima. Our bulletin had the following explanation of this season:
Season of Septuagesima
Today marks the beginning of the season of Septuagesima. From the Latin meaning seventy the Church has traditionally used this time as a liturgical preparation for Lent, effecting a transition from the joyful sentiments of Christmas to the somber penitential season of Lent. The next three Sundays are respectively called Septuagesima (70), Sexagesima (60), and Quinquagesima (50), and are so named because in the early days of the Church many communities began the Lenten fast fifty, sixty, or seventy days before Easter in order not to have to fast every day of the forty. Violet is worn on Sundays, the Gloria omitted (although organ still permitted), and the joyful Alleluia will not be heard at any Mass until the Easter Vigil. This is a good period for us all to reflect on our spiritual progress since last Easter and, in turn, begin consideration of a suitable penance for Lent.
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Memories of a Catholic Wife and Mother
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: The Christmas Season
