Friends in Christ,
Tomorrow January 1 is the Octave of the Nativity (the ancient Feast of the Circumcision) and is a Holy Day of Obligation. Below are the Latin Mass times as announced as well as information about plenary indulgences available today and tomorrow.
Octave of the Nativity (Thursday January 1, 2026)
Diocese of Charlotte
Diocese of Charleston
Diocese of Raleigh
As a reminder, travelers are urged to consult parish websites or offices for up-to-date information regarding possible changes in the schedule of Mass times.
Propers for the Octave of Christmas January 1
December 31 and January 1 - Plenary Indulgences Available
For the last and first day of the calendar year there is a plenary indulgence granted (under usual conditions) for the faithful who pray the Te Deum hymn on December 31 and the Veni Creator on January 1, in a parish church or oratory. The Te Deum is offered in thanksgiving for the graces received over the past year, while the Veni Creator is prayed to ask for God’s assistance in the New Year.
The 40 Days of Christmas: A History of Christmas by Dom Prosper Guéranger
We apply the name of Christmas to the forty days which begin with the Nativity of our Lord, December 25, and end with the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, February 2. It is a period which forms a distinct portion of the Liturgical Year, as distinct, by its own special spirit, from every other, as are Advent, Lent, Easter, or Pentecost. One same Mystery is celebrated and kept in view during the whole forty days Neither the Feasts of the Saints, which so abound during this Season; nor the time of Septuagesima, with its mournful Purple, which often begins before Christmastide is over, seem able to distract our Holy Mother the Church from the immense joy of which she received the good tidings from the Angels [St Luke ii 10] on that glorious Night for which the world had been longing four thousand years. The Faithful will remember that the Liturgy commemorates this long expectation by the four penitential weeks of Advent.
The custom of celebrating the Solemnity of our Saviour’s Nativity by a feast or commemoration of forty days’ duration is founded on the holy Gospel itself; for it tells us that the Blessed Virgin Mary, after spending forty days in the contemplation of the Divine Fruit of her glorious Maternity, went to the Temple, there to fulfil, in most perfect humility, the ceremonies which the Law demanded of the daughters of Israel, when they became mothers.
The Feast of Mary’s Purification is, therefore, part of that of Jesus’ Birth; and the custom of keeping this holy and glorious period of forty days as one continued Festival has every appearance of being a very ancient one, at least in the Roman Church. And firstly, with regard to our Saviour’s Birth on December 25, we have St John Chrysostom telling us, in his Homily for this Feast, that the Western Churches had, from the very commencement of Christianity, kept it on this day. He is not satisfied with merely mentioning the tradition; he undertakes to show that it is well founded, inasmuch as the Church of Rome had every means of knowing the true day of our Saviour’s Birth, since the acts of the Enrolment, taken in Judea by command of Augustus, were kept in the public archives of Rome. [The History of Christmas]
~
To Our Readers and All Friends of the Latin Mass: May you be abundantly blessed by God in this joyous season of Christmas.