I say "Nativity" and not "Post-Nativity" thoughts, because it is still Nativity. Please do not think that when the first day of Nativity has passed all that magic Nativity Snow is just plain ol' snow snow. It isn't. It may be inconvenient at times, but it is still the Snow of Nativity.

Nativity lasts until the Feast of the Epiphany. Not all of it may be holiday and merrymaking (though in some parts of the Motherland it is), but all of it is the most magical season of the year. Carols are still in season and two important festivals lie ahead in the next two weeks.

The great Midwinter Festival of the Birth of the Light has always been a twelve-day season at its core (in fact it has often been much longer - its penumbra beginning in the fall and not fully ending until Luciad, the Feast of Lights, six weeks after the Solstice).

The one-day Christmas was a Victorian invention, made in a world where the wheels of industry and commerce must not be allowed to stop for more than the briefest period.

The oft-stated perception that the season "starts earlier every year" is almost a drift back to the older tradition. It is commercially driven, of course, but as stated in our recent article on Nativity, even commerce cannot help but reflect the powerful pull of the Universal Event called Nativity.

What has remained as a Victorian heritage, though, is the dead-stop on Boxing Day (Masquiday in Aristasian tradition) - though even this is in some places giving way to an extended holiday or semi-holiday from Nativity to the Day of Herthe (Christmas to New Year). It is not, however considered, at least in Protestant countries, "still Christmas".

For Filianists, it is very definitely still Nativity until the Epiphany. It is a magical, beautiful season. A time for continued celebration and a time when the subtle world and the physical world are very close.

A happy continuing Nativity to you all.

Hail to the Princess Who is born and Whose glorious showing-forth we still await!