Christmas is a slightly confusing time of year. Primarily, because of the days before it and after it.
I’ve got a little Christmas countdown calendar with 24 pockets, numbered 24 to one, and a little snowman to move from pocket to pocket in accordance with the days. Thus, I could count down or up – it’s slightly confusing. Not sure what to do and, on most days, not sure of the actual date or day of the week, I just put the snowman in whichever numbered pocket suits my fancy. Currently, the snowman is in pocket 18.
If you multiply the three wise men by two and subtract that number from the pocket in which the snowman is currently residing, you get 12. More specifically, the Twelve Days of Christmas. I’ve known several people who begin celebrating this 12 days before Christmas. According to the Wible (Wikipedia – the Internet Bible), these festivities don’t begin until Christmas Day (December 25 – even on leap years) and do not end until the Twelfth Night, January 5. This is where things get a little crazy. The Twelfth Day can come before or after the Twelfth Night. Following (and slightly part of ) Twelfth Day is the ever important Epiphany (January 6). In addition to being a day of gift giving, Epiphany is the last day to take down decorations without chancing a wee bit of bad luck (so say the Brits).
In between all of this is New Year and the ever popular New Year’s Eve. New Year’s Eve and Christmas Eve tend to get a little more attention than New Year Day and Christmas Day. Being that the eves are so important, it causes me to wonder why Twelfth Day (or is it Night) isn’t called Epiphany Eve. More importantly, why don’t we celebrate Birthday Eve? Just to give some of my regular celebrations a bit more meaning, I plan to start celebrating their eves. Birthday Eve, Karaoke Eve, State Fair Free Concert Eve, National Corndog Day Eve, Stoop Eve and Eve Eve – a night devoted to repeated plays of Gangsta Lovin’ followed by a day of repeated plays of Let Me Blow Ya Mind.