Posted on January 6, 2021
Key Points
In many places and for many people, Christmas celebrations continue. For some, Christmas is finally here. Many Eastern Orthodox churches (such as Russian Orthodox) celebrate Christmas according to the older Julian calendar—which makes tonight Christmas Eve. The Armenian Church celebrates Jesus’ birth and baptism today—which makes this Christmas Day.
And Roman Catholic and other Christian groups celebrate today as the anniversary of Jesus being visited and gifted by three kings (although the Bible does not give the number of visitors, nor does it call them kings!).
In many places where Epiphany or Three Kings Day is celebrated, there is special food and a family feast. People often make and eat King Cakes—and some lucky child finds a toy baby Jesus (or the substitute, a bean) in his or her cake and gets crowned King or Queen for the day.
Different calendars, different religions, different peoples and places = different holiday traditions!
Make a scrapbook of your own family holiday traditions. Or collect the various traditions of the people in your community and share them all in a book. (You can use a copier to create multiple copies of the book.)
Here’s another idea: write about and photograph your own family’s and community’s traditions, put the pages into a binder, and then send it on to a “sister” school or homeschool group in another part of the country or world. Ask that school or group to add their own written descriptions and photos and send it on somewhere else. Be sure to include instructions that the shared holiday book be sent back to you (after, say, 10 schools or groups have added to the book).
Use a scrapbook bought at a crafts store or a “blank book” bought at a book store. You can even choose to make a hardbound book by hand! There are instructions here.
Twelve Twelves for Twelfth Night
The number 12 is pretty special. Like, it has 6 factors – more than any of the numbers lower than it – and even more than many larger numbers, as well!
EXAMPLE: “12 = P in a U S J” means “12 People in a United States Jury.”
(The actual items are hopefully a little easier than that one, by the way.) Good luck!
(1) 12 = M in a Y
(2) 12 = E in a C (and we call them a D)
(3) 12 x 12 = a G
(4) 12 = N or M, depending on PM or AM
(5) 12 = D D (in “The 12 D of C” – a long and repetitive seasonal song!)
(6) 12 = S of the Z
(7) 12 + 1 = D in a B D
(8) 12 = T of I (Biblical reference)
Now see if you can figure out these scrambled movie titles that feature 12 or a word that means 12:
(9) A C E E E L N O S T V W (2 words)
(10) A C D E E E H N O P R Z (“___ by the ___”)
(11) D D E I N O R T Y Z (2 words, with “The”)
Also on this date:
Plan ahead:
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January birthdays
And here are my Pinterest boards for:
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February birthdays
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Historical anniversaries in February