Epiphany means uncovering, revealing or manifestation. The traditional feast of the Epiphany comes on 6th January after the twelve days of Christmas. It's an ancient feast of the Church which can bring a lot of joy in the 21st century too
Traditional Meanings
In the Western churches, the celebration focuses on the visit of the far-travelled magi to Jesus by the guiding of a mysterious new star – The main idea is that Christ was revealed to people who were not Jews. The bible story speaks simply of ‘wise men from the east’; later tradition fixed their number at three, made them kings and named themem – Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. So Epiphanytide is an traditional time to pray for the worldwide mission of the Church
In the Eastern churches, the focus is on the celebration of Christ’s baptism at the hands of John, when the heavens were opened and a voice from heaven declared Jesus to be God’s beloved Son.
Today churches celebrate Epiphany over a season and think about many bible stories in which Christ is revealed to people. The season ends at the feast of Candlemas on 2nd February
Ideas for Celebrating Today
These ideas are great for family - or for a community outreach event. You can find resources to help you at https://www.lightwave.community/resources/epiphany
- Tell the story of the wise men on 6th Jan and place the wise men in the crib scene for the first timeGo star-gazing
- Some people leave the Christmas tree up until Epiphany or Candlemas, the end of the Epiphany Season.3 Kings Star Trail or Treasure Hunt
- Crafts involving stars or crowns
- Epiphany party
- Epiphany Cake (Galette des Rois or Rosca des Reyes. Twelfth night marks the end of Christmas festivities and Epiphany with the arrival of the Kings. One traditional way to celebrate this is to have the Twelfth Night cake which contains a bean - and whoever finds the bean gets to wear the crown and be king or queen. (Lots of great recipes on the web)
- Chalking of the Door and House blessing
Wishing you a Blessed and Happy Epiphany
