Why does it matter when we celebrate the Feast of Stephen? John? Holy Innocents? The challenge of tradition, innovation, and formation.
Christmas is known for its festive celebration, joyous attitude, and nostalgic traditions. It is also distinct as a religious holiday that fundamentally transcends the boundaries of its tradition.
The most recognizable part of Christmas, apart from the tree and Santa, is the story of Jesus’s birth. Particularly as told in the Gospel of Luke. So many of the church’s great and recognizable hymns describe the scene with pastoral flair.
But from the earliest time, the celebration of Christmas was built around what happens next. As much as the flavor of the day itself is colored in remembering the precise moment, even this flavor is not actually about the moment.
Celebrating the birth of Jesus is always about who Jesus would become.
And the church, likewise, developed a pattern of honoring that over a season of twelve days.
Perhaps most significant was the placement of three days immediately succeeding Christmas Day on December 25th. It is followed by the Feast of Stephen (26), of John (27), and of Holy Innocents (28). Three feasts that deal, not with the joy of Jesus’s birth, but the challenge of following Jesus.
In other words, they are the downers after the high of Christmas.
So why don’t we always celebrate them?
This is as fascinating a question as exists in the church. And the multitudes of answers we can give displays it well.
In a sense, we’re looking at a form of guiding our common prayer life that has been around for 1,500 years. It is hard to call anything more traditional than that.
We’ve also developed a pattern over the many centuries since of really only doing our worship on Sundays. That we even get people out for Christmas Eve on a weekday in the 21st Century is a modern miracle. So, in a sense, if it doesn’t happen on a Sunday, we don’t really do it.
There are other interesting quirks about the celebration of these three days, however.
From 6th Century through the 20th Century, the practice of remembering these days was not that they are for those particular dates, specifically, but that they were the three days that immediately followed Christmas. The point was to immediately follow Christmas with the Feast of Stephen. Then John. Then Holy Innocents.
In the 1960s, rules began to change around the observance of these days. We have, in a sense, uncoupled them from their specific time to accommodate the Sunday celebration so that it would supersede the feast.
Unsurprisingly, church nerds love to fight about this stuff.
So when do we celebrate the Feast of Stephen?
In the Roman Catholic Church, the Sunday service overrides the feast. So in 2021, that put Stephen out in the cold.
In the Episcopal Church, and those using the revised common lectionary, the days get bumped by Sunday. So, as Sunday fell on the 26th in 2021, all three were moved back a day.
This, of course, does not necessarily apply to those churches named after Stephen, John, or Holy Innocents. We are allowed to celebrate our patronal feasts over the preferred Sunday in this case.
Why does it matter?
I suppose this level of church nerdiness may go beyond your tolerance. And really, why does it matter if we celebrate the Feast of Stephen on Monday or John? In the broadest sense it totally doesn’t. But in that same sense, then very little actually matters.
The two things I’m thinking about are these:
- Tradition gave us a particular pattern and our current practice is totally new. We are abiding by an innovation like it is unchangeable. And that needs to be acknowledged. Because maybe there is a different pattern that suits us better.
- The three feasts of Stephen, John, and Holy Innocents are a beautiful and sobering reminder of the grace of God: the very reason we celebrate the birth of Christ. These are the answer to the question: Why does Christmas matter?
As a priest who really does enjoy taking the time during the Christmas season for family, I understand the confusion of the moment. I have incentive to not elevate these holy days. Who wants to do serious feasts five or potentially six days in a row. It would make Christmas worse than Holy Week!
At the same time, we are missing something. And our modern liturgical approach toward Christmas actually feels a bit like mass avoidance (pun delightfully unintended).
Perhaps the most valuable present action would be to set a new course toward better formation and discipleship. To make these feast days of greater value. And to make them more tangible for our people.
How we do that matters less than that we do it.
If you would like to celebrate these feasts at home
You can check them out from the links below:
Stephen, December 26
John, December 27
Holy Innocents, December 28
And for more information about the history of these feasts, check out this write up, which explores the history and tradition of these three feast days.