The Octave of Christmas

Most people in the secular world would expect the primary definition of the word, “octave”, to be related to music. Surprisingly, the first definition listed in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary is as follows: “an eight-day period of observances beginning with a festival day.”  This definition is in perfect alignment with the liturgical calendar of the Holy Catholic Church!

But why eight days? In the Hebrew tradition, Sunday was the first day of the week and the first day of creation, with Saturday being the last day of the week and the Sabbath. In the Christian tradition, Jesus rested in the tomb on the Sabbath (Holy Saturday) and was raised from the dead on Sunday - this “eighth day” became the day of the Lord’s re-creation. Over many years and after the prolonged celebration of many lesser feasts, the Church decided that our two principal feasts – the Solemnities of Easter and Christmas – would be the only two feasts acclaimed as Octaves.

We, as Catholics, recognize that Christmas is not only celebrated on December 25, the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord – the feast is lengthened into an eight-day festival ending on January 1, the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. These bookends of the “Octave of Christmas” affirm Christ’s nature and manhood, as well as Mary’s role as the Mother of God. The wisdom of the Church commences the Octave with the birth of Jesus and concludes it on the eighth day with the veneration of Mary’s role in the incarnation.

The Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is known as the “Octave Day” while all the other days in between are known as “days within the Octave of Christmas”. Each day within the Octave of Christmas is special and is observed, liturgically, in the same manner as the Nativity of the Lord – for example, the Gloria is recited at Mass each day of the Octave. Throughout the Octave, the Church provides us with beautiful liturgies, again rejoicing in the infancy and childhood of Jesus. But to remind us of the real purpose of Christmas – God becoming Man so that he could suffer and die for our salvation – the Church also commemorates several other important feasts that are described very well in other writings of this book (see *The Christmas Season and *Christmas Feast Days).

On one of those feast days, we hear from the Gospel of John, who tells us: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. . . . And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.”  This, above all, is the authentic message of the Nativity of the Lord, and our ultimate call to fully celebrate the Octave of Christmas!


Jason Lyons
Parishioner