Second day of Christmas

The worst after Christmas days were in 1941. Suffice it to say that on its second day, General Douglas McArthur declared Manila an open city and that the Japanese occupation ended with Manila as the second most destroyed city in the world.

Now even the term "twelve days after Christmas" no longer means anything, for Christmas traditionally ended on the Epiphany, the feast that commemorated Christ's manifestations to the Gentiles. Now the Vatican has made the Epiphany, popularly known as The Feast of the Three Kings a moveable feast celebrated on the first Sunday of January that does not fall on a New Year. This January it falls on a Sunday so the Epiphany will be on the second Sunday of January and we will have the thirteen days after Christmas. Shakespeare had a play on the twelfth night revels but it was not on the Epiphany but on the Roman Saturnalia.

Actually the biggest holiday we celebrate during the 12 days after Christmas has nothing to do with Christmas. We are, of course, referring to Rizal's martyrdom. There is another feast that we commemorate during the twelve days after Christmas, Holy Innocents Day. It was traditionally our equivalent of April Fools Day. It is the day when you play practical jokes on friends. We really wish that they would give this day more meaning because the Holy Innocents were the very first martyrs. We wish that all the mayors of Metro Manila would get together and agree to make Holy Innocents Day a day dedicated to our street children. In that way, the Biblical story of the innocent children who died for Christ would have a contemporary meaning.

During Spanish times, the main emphasis of Christmas Day was the Nativity. Now, sad to say, it is Santa Claus. Christmas presents were given on the last day of Christmas to commemorate the gifts of the Magi to the newborn Christ. Now, the Three Kings are three totally forgotten figures. Their day is not even observed. A Jesuit priest, Fr. Horacio de la Costa, has, however, Filipinized them in his poem. Here is part of it:

And if you ask why I affirm

That Melchior was King of Tondo,

When Gaspar ruled Sampaloc,

And Balthazar Binondo,

We will not argue. We will walk

The streets on Christmas Eve,

And I will show you the poor man's rafter,

Where hangs the Star the Kings

Sought after,

High above Christian prayer

And laughter,

You will see it, and believe!