You’ve celebrated Christmas Day, and hopefully you’ve gained an appreciation for Boxing Day or St. Stephen’s Day on December 26th. Now we’re onto the Third Day of Christmas, and you might be finding it difficult to keep the Christmas spirit burning. Saint John the Apostle may have the pick-me-up you need.
December 27th, the Third Day of Christmas, is the Feast of Saint John, also known as St. John the Evangelist and St. John of Patmos, who was described as the disciple “whom Jesus loved” in the New Testament.
Unlike St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr celebrated on the 26th, St. John lived a very long life, becoming the only one out of 12 Apostles to escape martyrdom and pass away at old age. He left us the Gospel of John, which arguably provides the Bible’s neatest summary of the Christian message:
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
– John 3:16
The saint also left us the three Epistles of John, and the startling Book of Revelation – penned during his dotage on the Island of Patmos, after he had been banished to Greece.
‘A WONDERFUL TIME IN MERRIE OLDE ENGLAND.’
St. John did not escape martyrdom because he avoided the attention of the persecutors of the early Church. According to tradition, he was given poisoned drink while preaching in Ephesus – but he blessed the concoction, and it slithered from his cup in the form of a snake.
In memory of this story, the Third Day of Christmas is celebrated with a special beverage, sometimes called St. John’s Love. A mulled wine flavored with cinnamon, cloves, and other spices, it was often served in a large wassail bowl in England, named for an Anglo-Saxon salutation meaning “be in good health”.
Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra can be seen sharing a drink from a wassail bowl in honor of the English tradition in their legendary Christmas crossover from 1957, with Ol’ Blue Eyes reminiscing about how “they had a wonderful time in Merrie Olde England.”
For Catholics, it was also traditional to bring a bottle of wine to Mass on the Feast of St. John, and ask the priest to bless it afterwards. The bottle would sometimes be kept as a gift for newlyweds, or to be administered as a sacrament to the dying.
Catholic or not, sharing a few cups with family and friends from the wassail bowl on the Third Day of Christmas wouldn’t go amiss. If you can, it would be best to share a cup with your mother, in memory of Jesus entrusting his own mother to St John. as He hung on the Cross.
