A mediaeval time traveller would find December a most puzzling month. In the Middle Ages, Advent was a period of serious preparation for Christmas, days of contemplation on not only the birth of Christ, but the consequences of that event. The prospect of judgement weighed on their minds as they readied themselves to greet Him. Celebrations then began after the Nativity, with twelve days of roistering until normal life resumed, following Epiphany.
Now the festivities are concentrated before 25 December, with the days afterwards a dowdy period of listless lethargy before the New Year, which for many has become a time of penitential fasting. No one any longer treats Advent as a mini Lent, though many people now extend Lent from January to Easter for the sake of their liver, rather than their soul.
