We all know what "January 6th" means in American politics during this 2024 campaign season. But that's not what this blog post is about.
This blog post is also not in any way an argument in support of the American Bishops and Cardinals Pope Francis has fired and kicked out recently. This is not a political blog post.
But it is something I noticed when I wrote my book "History Happens Everyday"
The Constitution requires the Congress to meet to certify the election of a President on January 3rd, unless a law is passed that changes the date. A law was passed at some point making the date this historical event every 4 years happens, and that date just happens to be the January 6th.
The problem with this date and the American Constitution and Catholicism is that the feast of the epiphany is also always January 6th because that is 12 days after Christmas and the date celebrates the arrival of the three wise men bearing gifts to the new born Jesus. This date is a traditional date of gift giving in Europe even to this day.
The American Constitution forbids the establishment of an official religion. However, when they passed the law that made it January 6th, it created an oddity of coincidental timing in our constitution.
Every 4 years after a Presidential election the US Congress receives the actual certifications from states in a box, and the box is opened like a present and counted by the Vice President and certified by Congress, officially and legally making whoever was elected President, the President.
I'm not saying that the certification of the President is the same as the three wise men delivering gifts in a box to Mary and Joseph on January 6th.
But there are similarities to these two rituals that might potentially create a constitutional conundrum.
Of course answering these questions is far above my pay grade of a former unpaid intern of the CA legislature.
I bet there are people who know way too much history who work somewhere in our Federal Government who has noticed this quick in historical dates and events before and have the answers to this concern.
Intellectually the coincidental nature of January 6th is something to be mindful of.
And it's not like the coincidence is doing any major damage to our democracy like what "January 6th" 2021 has done. Nobody is going to be charged for a crime for talking about to noticing that the date coincides with a European tradition and Catholic holiday. There are plenty of other examples of catholic historical events coinciding with American historical events.