Grogu, a Christmas Stocking, the Liturgical Year, and Me

I learned, long ago, that being “pretty sure” about something wasn’t necessarily the same as being right.

Take what I was “pretty sure” about last month, for example:

“…Folks living in the next block north of our house have inflatable yard decorations out and lit up for this Christmas season. So, on my way to Mass, I drove by Baby Yoda and SpongeBob SquarePants wearing a festive Santa hat.

“Baby Yoda is holding what I’m pretty sure is an orange Halloween treat bag….”
(“Christmas: Family, Lights, and a Little Weirdness” > Holiday Weirdness (December 28, 2024))

The neighbor’s Baby Yoda/Grogu’s Christmas stocking didn’t seem as bright red as the one in that promotional photo. But the symbol on it was the same. And it was clearly a Christmas stocking.

Then, when I was writing last week’s post (“A Short Look at a Small Dog…”), I was pretty sure that the Christmas season ended on Epiphany Sunday. More accurately, I wasn’t thinking about that particular aspect of the liturgical calendar.

I was wrong. Christmas season ended last Sunday, January 12, when we celebrated the baptism of Jesus.

As mistakes go, this one wasn’t all that serious.

But it was embarrassing, and another reason for me to be very glad that I’m not responsible for planning what we do and when we do it during Mass. We have folks who are a great deal more qualified than I am for that sort of thing.

This is an ‘unscheduled post’, so I won’t go on about our liturgical year, cycles, and the year’s seven principal celebrations. Some of that’s discussed in first few pages of the following resource:

• Liturgical Calendar for the Dioceses of the United States of America 2025
  Resources, USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops)

I’ve talked about lawn decorations, holidays, and why we celebrate, before:

• “A Short Look at a Small Dog, and Another Week in Minnesota”
  (January 11, 2025)
• “Christmas: Family, Lights, and a Little Weirdness”
  (December 28, 2024)
• “St. Patrick’s Day: Shamrocks, Saints, Leprechauns, and Me”
  (March 16, 2024)
• “Just Who is This Jesus Person, and Who Does He Think He is?”
  (October 8, 2022)
• “Epiphany, the Magi and Me: The Big Aha!”
  (January 1, 2022)