We must also consider Christmas in connection with the festivals which follow in the course of the year, such as the Circumcision of our Lord, which, of course, falls on the eighth day after Christmas, the _Octava Domini_, the Epiphany, and Candlemas Day. Thus quite naturally, as it were, a cycle of festivals has grown up round Christmas Day. We may also mention the Sunday in the Octave of Christmas with its Gospel giving the account of the meeting of Jesus and His parents with Simeon and Anna. The Gospel for the Sunday after New Year’s Day records the flight into Egypt. The Sundays after Epiphany form connecting links between Christmas and Easter, varying from two to six, according as Easter falls earlier or later. Only the two first Sundays have any distinctive character, the first commemorating the visit of our Lord to the Temple at the age of twelve years, and the second His first miracle at Cana of Galilee.[360] The remaining Sundays, along with Septuagesima and Sexagesima, do not commemorate any historical event in their lections from Scripture; Quinquagesima and the Sundays in Lent direct our attention to the approaching Passion. In the case of the Sundays three to six after Epiphany, this is intentional, since they are liable to be transferred from their proper place to the end of the year when necessary. The Sunday in the Octave of Christmas, or, as it was formerly called, the Sunday after Christmas, has as its Gospel St Luke ii. 33-40, which gives the account of Simeon’s prophecy. Chronologically speaking, this passage comes before its time, for, in St Luke’s Gospel, it comes after the passage chosen as the Gospel for Candlemas (St Luke ii. 22-32), of which it forms the continuation. In the last verse (ii. 39), mention is made of the return from Jerusalem or Bethlehem to Nazareth. The events, however, which follow in the course of the Church’s year—the circumcision and the arrival of the Wise Men—must have happened before the return to Galilee. 3. _The Octave of Christmas. The Circumcision. The New Year_ Since Easter, after the example given by the Synagogue, was from the first observed with an octave, and, since Epiphany had its octave already in the eighth century, it was inevitable that Christmas should be provided with one also. Accordingly, the eighth day after Christmas bears the name _Octava Domini_ (In Octavas Domini) in the Gelasian[361] and Gregorian sacramentaries, whence it may be inferred that it was not yet regarded as an independent festival and passed unnoticed if it fell on a week-day.