Christmas I

Sunday after Christmas

28 December 2025 – Today is Sunday after Christmas (also called Christmas I), and Bach wrote 3 cantatas for that day, one in Weimar and two early Leipzig works.

Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn, BWV 152, is an early Weimar cantata from 1714, when Bach was just appointed as Konzertmeister, which brought the obligation to write a monthly cantata. This cantata, like several other Weimar cantatas, is scored for the more minimal, chamber music-like setting of the Weimar court.

Das neugeborne Kindelein, BWV 122, is a choralcantata from his 1724 cantata cycle. Gottlob! nun geht das Jahr zu Ende, BWV 28, gives thanks for the past (prosperous) year and hopes for equal fortune in the new year.

You may wonder why there is no part of the Weihnachtsoratorium for this day, seemingly creating a break in the sequence? The reason is simple: The six cantatas of the Christmas Oratorio are written for the six festive days of Christmastide, and Christmas I is not one of them. On top of that, the Sunday after Christmas was not celebrated in 1734 when Bach performed the Oratorio for the first time. Christmas fell on a Saturday that year, so the following Sunday was the Second day of Christmas, and hence there was no separate Sunday after Christmas.

Music for today

• Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn, BWV 152
  (first performance 30 December 1714, Weimar period)
• Das neugeborne Kindelein, BWV 122
  (first performance 31 December 1724, Leipzig period)
• Gottlob! nun geht das Jahr zu Ende, BWV 28
  (first performance 30 December 1725, Leipzig period)