December 30, the Sixth Day of Christmas, is in some ways the most unusual of the Twelve Days—not because it commemorates anything especially strange or alarming, but because it commemorates… nothing at all. No saints are associated with it, except in some of the more obscure traditions, and no great traditions—it is a blank breathing space at the halfway point between Christmas Day and Twelfth Night, fine for carol singing and other generic traditions, but with nothing to distinguish besides its lack of distinction.
This is deliberate. The Feast of the Holy Family is celebrated on the Sunday between Christmas and New Year’s Day—this year, December 29, the same day as the Feast of St. Thomas Becket. Sometimes, however, there is no Sunday between Christmas and New Year, and December 30 is kept free for the feast for such years.
So, to avoid having nothing to discuss on the Sixth Day of Christmas this year, we will use it to discuss the Feast of the Holy Family, which is reserved for it—although, really, yesterday was the day for it this year.
JESUS, MARY, AND JOSEPH.
The Feast of the Holy Family focuses on Jesus’s earthly family, returning us to the Nativity narrative after the various diversions from Boxing Day through to St. Thomas Becket in Medieval England.
After Jesus was born and visited by the Magi, the Holy Family had to flee to Egypt to escape the Massacre of the Innocents, which we commemorated on Childermas. This boyhood spell in Egypt and—after Herod died—Nazareth is referred to as the “Hidden Life of Jesus.” It remains largely undocumented, though it represents most of His life before His public ministry.
It is a period that reminds us of Jesus’ humanity—who was the Son of Man as much as He was the Son of God. The Bible often reminds us how, as a boy, He even obeyed His earthly parents, Mary and Joseph, as the Gospel of Luke records.
The Feast of the Holy Family, therefore, celebrates not only the Holy Family but all families as, ideally, a model of holiness, with the mother emulating the Virgin Mary, the father emulating St. Joseph, and the children honoring their earthly parents as Jesus did. It is also an important reminder to make an effort to stay connected with loved ones we might find we are increasingly only in touch with during the holidays, as the festive season wanes and the pressures of work and the secular world begin to reassert themselves.
