Where are my calling birds?

Cycles!

Have they forgotten to take down their banner - or is it all only just starting?

Through the centuries the church has celebrated a particular pattern - Advent begins the Year with a time of reflection and preparation for Christmas. Christmas, of course, starts on the 25th December and lasts for twelve days. Twelfth Night is always the evening of the 5th January. Then on the 6th comes the feast of the Wise Men - where in many places round Europe the gifts are exchanged.

The advantage is that because there are not the long weeks of hype, Christmas feels a thousand times more special. And I remember the tree going up on Christmas Eve, and the overwhelming wonder of Christmas morning seeing it all for the first time.

In the new-look secular world, Christmas begins in October. Driven by the commercial pressure to sell more, Christmas Day becomes the end of a process rather than the beginning. Children arrive at Christmas blasé, and parents jaded with weeks of worrying about getting it right. In the space of just three or four generations we have changed the world dramatically.