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What feast are we actually celebrating today? The Canadian Church Calendar and the Prayer Book Calendar agree in designating today as “New Year’s Day.” But New Year’s Day is a civic holiday, not a feast in the Christian year.

Christmas, like all major feasts, is celebrated for eight days, and so today, as the final day of this celebration, is called, in the Prayer Book, “The Octave Day of Christmas.” But this is a liturgical designation; it does not tell us what happened on the 8th day following Jesus’ birth.

The Canadian Church Calendar calls today “The Naming of Jesus.” The final verse of today’s gospel reads: “his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb” (Luke 2:21). But this implies that the naming took place not on the 8th day following Jesus’ birth but before he was conceived.

In Matthew’s gospel we read that “Joseph took his wife but knew her not until she had borne a son, and he called his name Jesus” (Matthew 1:25). This places the naming at the time of Jesus’ birth. In The Birth of the Messiah Raymond Brown notes the discrepancy between the two infancy narratives as to who names the child: “In Matthew Joseph is to name the child, whereas in Luke Mary is to name the child.”

But there is also the discrepancy already noted as to when the child was named. But neither in Matthew or in Luke is the actual naming of Jesus assigned to the 8th day after his birth, which calls into question the appropriateness of the Canadian Church Calendar’s designation for today’s feast.

Besides “New Year’s Day” and “The Octave Day of Christmas” there is a third designation for today in the Prayer Book: “The Circumcision of Christ.” Paul obliquely acknowledges Jesus’ circumcision when he declares that Christ was “born under the law” (Galatians 4:4), and in writing to the Philippians Paul states that he himself was “circumcised on the eighth day” (3:5).

And yet, when writing to the Galatians, Paul vehemently objects to their submission to the rite which he and Jesus had both undergone. Indeed, he goes so far as to say “If you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you” (5:2) and to express the vulgar wish that those urging the Galatians to undergo circumcision should castrate themselves (5:12)!

Looking back on this controversy may give us some perspective on present controversies facing the church. Thomas Aquinas held that circumcision had the same place in the Old Law that baptism has in the New Law. To be sure, baptism has the advantage of being an “equal opportunity” initiation rite: it is open to members of both sexes, unlike circumcision.

However, we do not always grasp the implications of our own rituals. Paul, who declared that in Christ “there is neither male nor female” (Galatians 3:28), objected strongly to a woman praying unveiled (1 Corinthians 11:5), although we would expect the equality of men and women to be especially evident at times of worship.
Symbolic actions are clearly capable of stirring deep emotions, and this should make us think twice before we declare that something is only a symbol.

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