12 days of Christmas

Someones asked about the wisemen and the 12 days of Christmas, so here we go-

Many of our Christian holidays [holy days] appear on the calendar in random fashion. For example, no one knows for sure that Jesus was actually born on December 25th. Fact is, many Christian holidays were placed on the calendar to compete with other pagan holidays. Church leaders in doing so were giving good Christian alternatives to help their followers avoid bad pagan celebrations.

For example, some churches have "watch night services" on new years eve. This is simply an attempt to keep the good church folks in church instead of being out on the town on new years eve.

The liturgical calendar or church seasons runs like this:
[anyone please correct me where I am wrong, I am sure that I am missing something here]

Advent
Christmastide
Epiphany
Lent
Easter
Eastertide
Pentecost
Kingdomtide
Advent
etc.

So, randomly are set some of the dates on the church calendar. December 25th is Christmas. January 6th is Epiphany. Epiphany marks the day that the wise men arrived from the east. The 12 days is from Dec 25 thru Jan 6th. In other cultures and times past, there was less celebrating, less parties in December and more of the merrymaking was celebrated during the 12 days, December 25 - January 6th.

For this reasons, churches usually leave up the Christmas decor until after Jan 6.

Inquiring minds wanted to know- now you know, the rest of the story.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.