ExclusiveThe 12 Days of Christmas offer time for celebration, reflection, and hope

Welcome to Epoch Insight with Tiffany. My name is Tiffany Brannan. On the cover of the Life and Tradition section of the Epoch Times is an article called Celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas. I was instantly drawn to this article because of its beautiful illustration of a tree, a pear tree, with different ornaments in it representing the 12 different gifts mentioned in the famous song. It really struck me because the article points out something that I love to recognize, that the 12 days of Christmas are not the 12 days leading up to Christmas, but they start on Christmas. Christmas Day is not the end of the Christmas season, but the beginning of the Christmas season from a religious standpoint. So as we're now going between December 25th and January 6th, the Epiphany, which is the day after the 12 days of Christmas, I think that's a good time to perhaps be done with the more secular aspects of Christmas because they quickly start to disappear. The holiday parties are over, we stop hearing a lot of those songs on the radio. Perhaps instead turn to the true meaning of the holiday and to really reflect on what Christmas truly means. Regardless of what your personal faith is, we can't deny that Christmas and what it represents shapes the whole world. Now the article mentions ideas to keep the holiday spirit alive throughout the 12 days of Christmas. It begins by discussing the history of the whole Christmas season in medieval times. In England's Middle Ages, until the reign of the Tudors, Advent was four weeks of fasting and preparation, and some Christians still observe that. And then with the arrival of Christmas, there were the 12 days of Christmas, which is nearly two weeks of revelry and feasts, ending with the Epiphany in January, which was the day set aside to remember the time when the wise men arrived to visit the child Jesus. And that's kind of the opposite of what we do now. We tend to have plenty of revelry and celebration leading up to Christmas, and then not quite 12 days later, but then on January 1st, we begin with our New Year's resolutions. And January can be a very dark time, and even the time between Christmas and New Year can feel very empty, as you're off from work in some cases, and school, and just certain activities come to a halt. But because of that, it's a good opportunity to continue observing different aspects of the Christmas traditions. One idea is to keep on partying. It's a good opportunity to keep celebrating Christmas with parties. It can be a great time, especially to get together with friends and family who may have been too busy leading up to Christmas. And it mentions that for celebrating, it would be to exchange different gifts that represent the lyrics of the 12 days of Christmas throughout the days. Of course, you may not be able to give someone eight maids a milking, but you can do something clever that represents that. For instance, the writer gave her husband five donuts on day five for the five golden rings. You could also have yourself a literary Christmas. There could be an opportunity to study some different books, and plays, and other literature that represent this. For instance, it mentions that there are many pre-modern writers who centered plays and poetry on the 12 days. For instance, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was based on the Epiphany, and that's what the Twelfth Night represents. Because at that time, there would be plays, and masks, and productions often presented in the Lord of the Manor's court on the Twelfth Night for the amusement of guests. Join the Magi. It also mentions since the spirit of the Epiphany is sharing with others and giving to those in need, you could spend that time giving gifts to different people who need help, like elderly citizens, and pregnancy centers, other places where people are in need. The article also recommends making Christmas time your advent. Those 12 days can be a very meaningful time of reflection and spiritual meditation, as well as honoring Christmas in your heart. And it ends with the quote from A Christmas Carol, in which the reformed Ebenezer Scrooge says, I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the past, the present, and the future. The spirits of all three shall strive within me. And this represents that that idea of Christmas is more than just the festive clothing and the songs. It's a good time to really reflect that meaning. And here on the next page, there's an article called Christmas Offering Hope Even Within the Mundane World, a holiday that can inspire everyone. He mentions the important point in the Christmas story is stated in the Nicene Creed, and it means he came down from heaven. And the author points out, as I wrote then, that is the direction that God enters our lives. We as humans always want to go up. We want to think that we can lift ourselves up to be like gods, to be divine beings. And there certainly are popular phrases bandied about, about ascending to a higher plane. But when it comes down to it, human nature is deeply flawed. And the message of Christmas is that we are lowly and God comes down to visit us. This article struck me as extremely poignant in talking about what Christianity has done for the world. Even if you don't believe in it, you can't deny that it completely changed civilization of the entire world from that point. As it mentions, it's especially poignant that we celebrate it at Christmas in the wintertime. Christmas represents that our lives are in darkness until the light of God comes in and the days begin to grow longer. The article mentions how we can see the miracle of Christmas in the birth of any child. And as a father himself, the author points out that when his daughter was born, her birth felt like the only thing that existed in the world. There was this moment of stillness and peace, just as all the Christmas carols, Silent Night, O Holy Night, talk about that moment of stillness as all the heaven and earth stopped to watch the birth of an infant. This really represented the end of paganism in the Roman Empire and the death of the empire itself following the conversion to Christianity of most of the citizens. The resulting breakdown of the barriers between men and women, between slave and free, the eventual abolition of slavery, and the recognition of the individual soul as not only valuable but invaluable in its own right. As we see from the Christmas story, Herod was afraid of being overthrown by this infant king who was foretold in prophecy, so he ordered the killing of thousands of infants. He had that kind of power, he was a heartless tyrant, and even these wise men from the east avoided his tyranny by going a different route to return to their lands. The article ends very meaningfully by saying, a profound message of Christmas is this, the real light of the world has come and through that light we all have hope. Hope in children, hope in the fact that every human being is special, and hope in the idea that there is a great God-given plan and that we're all part of it. Over in the opinion section, Geoffrey Tucker, one of the most prolific opinion writers at the Epoch Times, has an article similar on this theme but bringing it into the new year. The new year is a time of hope, as the 12 days of Christmas very meaningfully finish out the end of the year and then go into the new year and culminate poignantly, I would say, on January 6th. One of my favorite celebrations of the epiphany is the beautiful American opera A Mall on the Night Visitors by Giancarlo Minotti, which people have loved since it first debuted on television in 1951 and we're preparing for preparation of a performance of it on January 6th, and as it was being announced at the church where we're performing it, the pastor said January 6th isn't a day about breaking into a capital or a day of conflict, it's a day of peace, and I thought how meaningful it is. Americans have hope. He references an article in the New York Times talking about Christmas tree maximalism, how this year it was very popular for people to decorate their trees with so many lights and ornaments that you could barely even see the tree, and the New York Times didn't really talk about why that's happening, but he imagines or suggests that it's because of people having this sense of celebration that a dark time is over. No matter what your political leanings are, there's a sense of positivity and optimism, of change, of something good happening as there are untold political changes happening, and it's my hope that people from both sides of the political aisle and all different beliefs and religions will be able to see something positive in the changes that are happening. Maybe it's just the wider availability of healthy food. Maybe people who are very liberal will like that, even if they don't like other political things. I hope that we all can find forgiveness for past hurts and find the hope of redemption and people coming together from all over the world as the Christmas story represents, the three mysterious wise men, the Magi. We don't really know who they are, but they were these men who saw a star and risked their lives to bring gifts to this king, and may we all find that hope as we're looking for something where we can all come together and bring gifts to celebrate hope in the new year. Thank you for watching. I hope you enjoyed the description of ways to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas, the hope which Christmas inspires throughout history, and ways that we can all have hope in the new year. If you enjoyed this video, I hope you'll like it, subscribe to the channel, share it with your friends, and leave a comment letting me know what your biggest hope is for 2025. Thank you for watching!