S’more Christmas: The Second Day of Awesome!
I know, I know, I know. It’s March. What are we doing talking about the 12 days of Christmas? We should be talking about Easter! But I have a plan! Twelve months of the year = twelve blogs = twelve days of Christmas. Then, when The Twelve Days of Christmas start at the end of this year, you will have everything you need to celebrate the entire Christmastide season.
You see, most of us in America are totally missing out on the true joy of the holiday season that lasts far past Advent and Christmas Day. It continues all the way to Twelfth Night, aka Epiphany, aka Kings Day.
So, today we are delving into the history, the traditions, and the meaning of The Second Day of Christmas, and it has nothing to do with a turtle doves.
When is the second day of Christmas?
If you read our last post, you know that it could be two days. Either December 26 or December 27. That is entirely up to you. If you want to know why or why that matters, you can read our First Day of Awesomeness blog.
We are calling December 27 the Second Day of Awesomeness – uh, I mean Christmas! And December 27 is known as the Feast of St. John the Apostle.
Why do we celebrate?
Of the books in the Bible that talk about Jesus’s life, not all of them talk about the nativity. However, the book of John, which is written by John, starts off with this verse:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God… The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
John 1: 1 and 14
So, it makes total sense to celebrate St. John right around Christmas, and I kinda wonder why we don’t celebrate a different apostle on each day. There are twelve apostles and twelve days. Makes total sense to me.
Who is St. John?
This is not John the Baptist who baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. This is John the Apostle, aka John the Beloved, aka John the Evangelist.
He was one of the twelve apostles. Many bible teachers think he was the youngest because in one book of Bible the Roman soldiers kept all the men away from the cross, but another book tells that John was near the cross with the women.
John is called John the Evangelist because he wrote several letters that became books in the Bible. In one of those books, he calls himself “the apostle whom Jesus loved.” And that’s why we call him John the Beloved.
How to celebrate The Second Day of Christmas
There is a really cool story that says someone tried to prove that God wasn’t real by daring St. John to drink a poisoned cup of wine. John blessed the wine, and the poison turned into a snake and crawled out of the wine!
So, in medieval times, people would bring their homemade wine to church on this day to be blessed.
Naturally, it makes sense to celebrate by drinking mulled wine or wassail (or cider). Did I mention that we sell mulling spice?
St. John was the only apostle to die of old age, but the poisoned wine wasn’t the only time someone tried to martyr him. Another story says that he was thrown into a pot of boiling oil, but God saved him. He came out of the oil without even getting hurt.
So, to celebrate God’s protection, people eat fried foods on this day, too. You know, donuts! French fries! Funnel cake! Potato chips!
St. John is, also, the patron saint of friendship. People celebrate through then entire Twelve Days of Christmas with parties, visiting family, friends, and neighbors that they didn’t get to see on Christmas Day. So, the Second Day of Christmas is the perfect time to celebrate with friends. It’s, also, the perfect time to write and mail those Christmas cards that you forgot to mail before Christmas.
That’s it for now. I hope to see you at my next blog where we will discover the history and traditions of the third day of Christmas and “Celebrate Always.” (I Thessalonians 5:16)
Merry Christmas,
S’more
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