A Blessed Octave of the Epiphany!

Today would be, and ought to be, the sixth day within the Octave of the Epiphany.  Nowadays, our liturgical calendars, even that pertaining to the 1962 Missal, are rather impoverished when it comes to Octaves.  The 1962 Missal has three, those of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost; the Novus Ordo jettisoned the Octave of Pentecost, leaving it with only the first two.  However, up until not so long ago, there were many more Octaves - perhaps too many, one might argue, but at least many more.

The list of Octaves observed varied somewhat through its development in the Middle Ages, and then was pared down by Pope St. Pius V when the Usage of Rome became the normal liturgical rite and calendar for Latin Christendom.  Following that, the rules for the celebration of Octaves were modified by various Popes, but the Octaves remained the same until Pope Pius XII.

Here is a list of all the Octaves (in rough chronological order):

Christmas
St. Stephan, Protomartyr
St. John the Apostle
Holy Innocents
Epiphany
St. Joseph
Easter
Ascension
Pentecost
Corpus Christi
Nativity of St. John the Baptist
Sts. Peter & Paul
Sacred Heart
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
All Saints
Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin

Additionally, the Patron of a Nation, Diocese, or Church was celebrated with an Octave, thus often adding as many as three more Octaves to the year.

Octaves have an intimate connection with all Sundays for Catholics.  Very early on, the Church moved the Sabbath to Sunday from its Jewish  place of Saturday.  Sunday has always been considered the first day of the week; Saturday the last, and so it was the Sabbath because God commanded it so in Genesis, during Creation.  It even antedates the Fall of Man!  However, with the Incarnation of Our Lord, and the beginning of the New Creation, the Sabbath shifts to Sunday as a constant reminder of that "Eighth Day" which has begun but stands incomplete.  Every Sunday is a Feast of Our Lord's resurrection and is the proverbial Eighth Day of Creation.

The concept of the Octave simply extends and develops this rich meaning of the Eighth Day and New Creation.  If each Sunday is a Feast of Our Lord's Resurrection, then why not also the principal Feast Days?  Thus, the custom began fairly early to commemorate the Octave Day of the principal Feasts.  Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost are the earliest attested Octaves (Catholic Encyclopedia, "Octave").  Later on, Octaves arose for other major Feasts of Our Lord and of the Saints.  Also later on the custom began of celebrating not only the Feast and its Octave-Day, but each day therein.  Thus, for example now each individual day within the Easter Octave is a First Class Feast (N.O.: Solemnity).

When Pius XII, via the Sacred Congregation of Rites (now known as the Congregation for Divine Worship (CDW) made various alterations to the Sacred Liturgy and Liturgical Calendar in 1955/56, the reason given was "simplification of the rubrics for the Mass and Breviary."  Certainly, this is quite understandable when the matter, for example, of overlapping Octaves arises.  The most obvious example is of the first four Octaves, where for a few days the Christmas, St. Stephan, St. John, and Holy Innocents Octaves are all simultaneously going on.  A muddy situation indeed!  Additionally, the Octaves of St. John the Baptist and Sts. Peter & Paul overlap (and Corpus Christi or the Most Sacred Heart can overlap with both too), and the Octave of St. Joseph often interferes with Passiontide.  So, one can see why both complex rubrics arose to classify each Octave, and ultimately why many were done away with.

Octaves, however, in addition to being liturgically and symbolically rich as I mentioned above, also help to give rise to many pious devotions amongst the faithful and are oft-replete with local, traditional customs associated with the most Solemn Feasts of the Faith.  Catholics are a feasting people, and the Catholic Religion a feasting religion.  Of course, this is extremely tempered in this Vale of Tears - hence we pray nine-day Novenas before eight-day Octaves, and we fast before we feast - but nonetheless these rhythms are essential to our religion.
So, let us continue to celebrate Epiphany with vigor, and offer an extra prayer for the restoration of the Epiphany Octave and perhaps some others too!