Christmas Season Continues

Christmas Season Continues…

I am watching a couple of dates that seem significant. Christmas season is not over and though there may be pagan origins, just like YHWH showed in Egypt He is Sovereign and He knows the beginning and the end and He can use these celebrations for His own Glory if He pleases. I have personal testimony that points me towards January 22nd & February 2/3rd. I am intently watching these dates. I have been watching intently since Christmas since these dates are tied in with Christmas. It is still the “Christmas Season”. And as we have already seen with the assasination of Benazir Bhutto significant things can happen quickly only as YHWH can know and has planned them. Our command is to watch!

When I was in the Navy before watch we took in all the information that would seem relevant so that when something came up we could more quickly decipher what action to take. This would be different from date setting, although to those on the outside it may seem to be the same. Nonetheless, we stand our watch…

January 5/6: The 12 days of Christmas end with the “Epiphany” of Jesus

January 22: Tu B’ Shevat: Rosh Hashanah for Trees. I will put more information under separate cover for this. Last year Candlemas and Tu B’ Shevat overlapped.

and February 2/3rd: Candlemas, Purification of the Virgin, Presentation of Jesus at the Temple

Here is some extrapolated information from Wikipedia. You may choose to do more research on any certain one, but this is an overview.

Christmastide (also Christmas or the Christmas season) is one of the seasons of the liturgical year of most Christian churches. It tends to be defined (with slight variations) as the period from Christmas Day to evening of 5 January, the day before the start of the octave of Epiphany (The date of the feast was very early fixed on January 6).

This period is also commonly known as the twelve days of Christmas
Epiphany (Greek: επιφάνεια, "appearance" or "manifestation") is a Christian feast intended to celebrate the "shining forth" or revelation of God to mankind in human form, in the person of Jesus. Some Christians commemorate the visitation of the Magi to the child Jesus on this day, while others use the day to commemorate the baptism of Jesus as an adult. The feast is also called Twelfth Day — being the twelfth day after Christmas — or Three Kings Day for those commemorating the Magi. It is also called Theophany, especially by those commemorating Christ's baptism.
The date of the feast was very early fixed on January 6

The earliest reference to Epiphany as a Christian feast was in the year 361, by Ammianus Marcellinus[2] St. Epiphanius says that the January 6 is hemera genethlion toutestin epiphanion (Christ's "Birthday; that is, His Epiphany").[3] He also asserts that the miracle at Cana occurred on the same calendar day.[4]
Western Christian Churches
By the year 534 the Western Church had separated out the celebration of the Nativity of Christ into the feast of Christmas and set its date as December 25, reserving January 6 as a commemoration of the coming of the Magi. The East continued to celebrate January 6 as a composite feast, only later adopting December 25 to commemorate both Jesus' birth and the coming of the Magi, but leaving January 6 as a commemoration of his Baptism.However comprehensively and unanimously today the epiphany day is symbolic of God's Incarnation in Jesus Christ and the star that led the Magi to the the Holy Child with the three gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh ; all symbolic about the different facets of Jesus's Life on earth.
Liturgical Practice
The West generally acknowledges a twelve-day festival, starting on December 25, and ending on January 5, known as Christmastide or the twelve days of Christmas, although some Christian cultures, especially those of Latin America and some in Europe extend it to as many as forty days, ending on Candlemas (February 2).
The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (also known as Candlemas or Feast of the Purification of the Virgin) celebrates an early episode in the life of Jesus
In many Western liturgical churches, Evening Prayer (or Night Prayer) on the Feast of the Presentation marks the end of the Epiphany season. In the Church of England, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Candlemas) is a Principal Feast celebrated either on 2 February or on the Sunday between 28 January and 3 February. In some Protestant churches, the feast is known as the Naming of Jesus.
Its formal name is either the festival of the Purification of the Virgin (especially in the uniate rites of the Catholic Church), or the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (especially in the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church). In the Orthodox Church it is known as The Feast of the Presentation of our Lord and Savior in the Temple, and in Anglican Churches it is known by various names[1]
Scripture
The event is described in the Gospel of Luke 2:22–40. According to the gospel, Mary and Joseph took the baby Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem forty days after his birth to dedicate him to God, in line with Jewish law of the time.
Upon bringing Jesus to the temple, the family encountered Simeon; the gospel records that Simeon had been promised "he should not see death before he had seen the Messiah of the Lord." (Luke 2:26) Simeon prayed the prayer that would become known as the Nunc Dimittis, or Canticle of Simeon, and prophesied regarding Jesus. The prophetess Anna (Bible) was also in the Temple, and offered prayers and praise to God for Jesus.
Date
In the Catholic liturgical calendar the Presentation of the Lord falls on February 2, forty days after Christmas. In the Church of England it may be celebrated on this day, or on the Sunday between 28 January and 3 February. In those Eastern churches that have kept the Julian Calendar, 2 February comes out as February 15 of the modern calendar.