Q: In the Octave of Christmas we celebrate three feasts—St. Stephen, St. John, Holy Innocents.  How did this happen?    In the development of the calendar was Christmas first, and were these three chosen particularly to color the celebration the nativity of the Lord?    Is there any tradition and solid elaboration regarding the placement of these celebrations?

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A: I cover some of this in my book Sacred Times. The first two feasts probably relate to other independent traditions and have nothing to do with the date of Christmas. Holy Innocents, of course, is very much part of the Christmas story. Today they are all part of the Christmas Octave, and the Liturgy of the Hours especially bends over backwards to accommodate those saints as well as the Christmas Octave. Nothing like that happens during the Easter Octave, which ranks very high on the Table of Liturgical Days.

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