聖誕期（ Christmastide）

崇拜設計資源：

1. 24 Famous Paintings of Nativity
2. Christmas Worship Resource
3. Lessons and Carols
4. Something different for Christmas?
5. Christmas Resource Guide
6. Nine Lessons and Carols
7. The Revised Common Lectionary

The Twelve Days of Christmas, also known as Twelvetide, is a festive Christian season celebrating the Nativity of Jesus Christ. In most Western ecclesiastical traditions, "Christmas Day" is considered the "First Day of Christmas" and the Twelve Days are 25 December – 5 January, inclusive. For many Christian denominations; for example, the Anglican Communion and Lutheran Church, the Twelve Days are identical to Christmastide.

December 28

Today, the Church celebrates the memory of the small children of the neighborhood of Bethlehem put to death by Herod. Our Christmas joy is tempered today by a feeling of sadness. But the Church looks principally to the glory of the children, of these innocent victims, whom she shows us in heaven following the Lamb wherever He goes.

在這普天歡慶的聖誕期，在每年的12月28日，記念「嬰孩被殺日」或「諸聖嬰殉道日」（Holy Innocents Day），

記念聖經新約中東方博士朝拜耶穌聖嬰後，大希律王為了除去新生的「猶太君王」，下令羅馬軍隊屠殺伯利恆及其周圍境內的兩歲以下嬰兒（馬太福音2:16-18）。 天主教會把這些嬰兒視作「殉道者」，因為他們是為了耶穌的緣故而遭殺害的。 教會在聖誕節後紀念嬰孩被殺日，就是以諸聖嬰孩的犧牲去代表無辜犧牲者的見證。

January 1

Today is the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, commemorates the naming of the child Jesus; as Luke 22:21 states that, "at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb."

教會甚少提及1月1日的「耶穌受割禮日」：路加福音2:21記載，嬰兒出生後的第8天，便受了割禮，取名叫耶穌；這個名字是天使在馬利亞懷孕以前就為祂取好的。 從12月25日算起的第8日，就是1月1日。