From Christmas Day to New Year’s Day is the Christmas octave. Octaves are eight-day weeks. An ordinary week is seven days long - but eight days? That’s something strange and wonderful.

In Christian symbolism, eight days represent eternity. Perhaps that is because an eight-day period begins and ends on the same day of the week. (Christmas and New Year’s always fall on the same day of the week.) Christmastime is a season to live with one foot in eternity.

Christmastime is filled with feast days. The first Sunday of the season is the feast of the Holy Family. (If Christmas Day is a Sunday, then the feast is kept on December 30.)

Holy Family Day is a favorite time for family reunions. Students are home from school and many people have extra days off from work. Like every day of Christmastime, it’s an occasion for feasting and caroling and relaxing. Some people say that the nicest part about Christmastime weekends is that there’s finally some time to sit back and enjoy the decorations and music and good company.