It’s January 25th and I bet you’ve taken down the crib? Far too soon! It should be there until February 2nd , Candlemas Day, i.e. tomorrow week. It marks the presentation in the Temple of Jesus to Simeon and Anna.
Candlemas of old represented the end of the Christmas holidays and derives its name from the practice of people bringing candles to their local church for blessing on this day.
Nowadays crib, decorations, cards, etc all tend to be gone by January 6th, Feast of the Epiphany. Or Little Christmas, or -if you’re in female company and feeling brave - `Women’s Christmas’!
You might imagine there would be little controversy surrounding any of these matters. You, dear reader, would be wrong.
Last month that most genial of men, Church of Ireland Bishop of Cashel Michael Burrows, wrote in his monthly letter about “the timeless delights” of preparing a crib.
He pointed out that initially “the animals should be there, with the manger and the hay, but really little else. On Christmas Eve Mary and Joseph arrive.” Then “around midnight the baby Jesus is placed in the manger.” On Christmas Day the shepherds arrived,” but the wise men (and the Bible never tells us how many of them there were!) do not take their place until the Epiphany,” he said.
The crib should “probably remain in place until 40 days after Christmas”, he said “until Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, the last event in the birth story of the Lord.” And the crib could then be completed “by crafting figures of Simeon and Anna and placing them in the tableau too.”
I wrote a report on this and conducted a blithe inspection of numerous Dublin city centre cribs to find that even then (mid- December) they were as crowded as rush hour trains, with one even including a chicken.
And, lo, there followed `Cribgate’, as Bishop Burrows himself humourously referred to it. Certain of our readers were indignant and resorted to the letters page, even the opinion page, to vent. One even accused Bishop Burrows of playing “the Christmas Grinch”.
Truly, it is astonishing the things people decide to get upset about.
But, leave that crib alone!
Crib from Old English cribbe for "manger of a cattle stable, fodder bin in cowsheds and fields.'
inaword@irishtimes.com
