The Homesteader family lives off-the-grid in northern Southeast Alaska. Living off the land and sea, we grow, gather, hunt and fish most of our food.
Urged by family and friends to share our experiences, we have turned to the Blogosphere to begin that process.
To preserve our privacy, we are identified only as father Hunter, mother Gardener, and teenaged daughter, Apprentice.
Each member of the family submits articles and blog entries if and when they have something to say. (Hunter)
Every Christmas brings up the old question: how do you count the twelve days of Christmas? The days between Christmas and Epiphany or Twelfth Night don't quite add up. Obviously, Twelfth Night must be Christmas day number twelve, so something's wrong.
The key is not to count Christmas Day itself. This is counterintuitive, but apparently, that's the way it's supposed to be. The key seems to be that Christmas day is too holy to be numbered, so it exists in and of itself. Any additional days tacked on to it are special, but not as special as Christmas, and can be safely numbered. This probably makes sense in a medieval mind set, one used to intercalary days (extra days to make the calendar work—Leap Day every four years in February is the only intercalary day we have left). The old Christmas festival, focused chiefly on the twelve days of Christmas plus Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, was a kind of "time out of time," a break from the back-breaking existence most people lived, one that barely spared time for church on Sundays.
Once Christmas Day is taken out of the equation, everything falls into place. Most, but not all of the twelve days of Christmas have their own minor observances or festivals:
Day 1. December 26, St. Stephens Day ("the Feast of Stephen" in the song Good King Wenceslas) also Boxing Day if it falls on a workday.
2. Dec. 27, St. John's Day, and Mother Night
3. Dec. 28, Holy Innocents Day, Childremass, observing Herod's massacre of the children in hopes of killing the Christ child sought by the Wise Men.
4. Dec. 29, Feast of Fools, a day of reversed roles, and upside down societal rules.
5. Dec. 30, no associated festival.
6. Dec. 31, Hogmanay, New Year's Eve
7. January 1, New Year's Day
8. Jan. 2, no associated festival.
9. Jan. 3, no associated festival.
10. Jan. 4, St. Distaff's Day. This observance wanders a bit depending on tradition. It's regarded as the day that women return to the ordinary work of the household after the Christmas holidays. Typical, isn't it, that they have to get back to work before the end of the season! This is opposed to "Plow Monday," when the men return to work on the Monday after the weekend after the holiday ends.
11. Jan. 5, Eve of Epiphany, Festival of the Three Kings.
12. Jan. 6, Epiphany, Twelfth Night.
Many people talk about "post Christmas letdown" or post holiday blues. We avoid this feeling by extending the Christmas celebration through Twelfth Night. On the last day we pack up the Christmas ornaments and decorations, and usually rearrange the house for everyday living. Going a few days past New Year's Day, which is the common end of the holidays, avoids snapping out of the holidays and returning to "normal" life on the day after the big New Year's Eve celebration. I used to dread January, which I saw as the icy front porch of winter for this reason. Besides, what worse way to begin a new year than by allowing the holiday season to crash to a close on the first day?