“…and a partridge in a pear tree.”
There was an urgent email in my inbox this morning from a famous catalogue company announcing that we were now officially IN the Twelve Days of Christmas.
Who is getting paid money these days to be so WRONG???? Do you mean to tell me that no one, in any department that all that advertising had to pass through to be approved, knows the difference? We Americans take traditions that have been around since the Middle Ages and twist them up for our own pleasure. We can’t even figure out when the Twelve Days of Christmas are. How can the rest of the world respect someone that doesn’t even get THAT right? Morons…it’s no wonder we can’t help broker world peace.
It is not the twelve days leading up to Christmas. The count starts with evening of Christmas Day and into the night of the Epiphany (January 5th-6th or Three Kings Day for Spaniards). Figures that consumeristic-money-grubbing retailers would have us believe otherwise. Anything to tighten those screws and rush us into throwing good money after bad.
I loved the fact that in Spain (at least back in the years we lived there), the main focus of Christmas eve was gathering the family for a wonderful meal that didn’t start until 10 p.m. About the time the last nibbles were on the lips – it was time for Midnight Mass.
Christmas Day was for sleeping in and left overs. Most gifts weren’t exchanged until Gaspar, Baltazar and Melchor made their way around town on Three Kings’ Day. More of that later but I just had to get this rant off my chest. Happy shopping!
1eyedmonkee 