Epiphany 2012: Dates, Customs And History Explained (PHOTOS)

The Feast of the Epiphany, marking the end of the 12 Days of Christmas, is generally observed on Friday, Jan. 6, 2012.

Epiphany -- which is variously known as Theophany, Three Kings Day and El Dia de los Tres Reyes -- is a Christian celebration of the revelation of the birth of Jesus to the wider world. This is embodied most in the story of three wise men visiting a newborn Jesus with gifts, found in the Gospel of Matthew 2:1-12.

In this story, Magi (wise men) from the east follow a star to Jerusalem, where they ask the presiding king, Herod, what he knows about a newly born "King of the Jews." This sounds like a challenge to Herod, who gathers his priests to learn where and who is this king. They relay a prophecy that Messiah will be born in Bethlehem, and Herod sends the Magi there, saying: "Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him." The wise men -- Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar -- eventually find Mary and her son, Jesus, to whom they bow and worship. The Magi give Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, and then return home, for a dream told them to bypass Herod.

While Roman Catholic and Protestant Christianity focuses on the story of the Magi, Eastern Christians, like the Greek Orthodox, celebrate the baptism of Jesus on Epiphany and consider the day to be more important than Christmas.

Traditionally, Epiphany is observed by blessing the home (recalling the Magi's visit to Jesus' family), blessing water (especially the Jordan River, where Jesus was baptized), exchanging gifts, performing "Magi plays" (to tell the story of Jesus' childhood) and feasting, most notably on a "King Cake."

Comments

[thesidetrek]

08:41 AM on 01/06/2013

Busy beginning of 2013. Today marks the end of the "holiday season". That's a good thing. Also the birthdays of Jeanne d'Arc and Joan de Florence. All good things. Downton tonight, too.

[lastwarning2earth rev14]

06:24 PM on 01/11/2012

These graven images, look like they came from a Babylonian arts and crafts festival

[accelerando]

06:04 PM on 01/08/2012

In Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Epiphany still ranks as the third most important feast, after Easter and Pentecost. Christmas was Jesus' human birthday, Epiphany was the celebration of his manifestation as God. That's why the liturgical readings follow a three year cycle: the visit of the non-Jewish magi, J's baptism by John with its vision, and the first miracle at Cana. Not that anybody much knows any of this anymore, like so much classic Christian theology--a once vibrant religion pretty much degenerated into a set of vague folk beliefs and superstitious practices. And does it even matter in this day and age?

[carmenalex]

10:31 PM on 01/07/2012

As a child in Puerto Rico, we celebrated El dia de los Reyes Magos. We would fill up a shoebox with grass and put in under our bed for the camels to eat, then in the morning we would find the box empty and gifts. I don't remember but my mom told me I would freak out at the thought of camels flinging spit all over the place (I watched a lot of nature shows aparently) and insist the grass box be placed under my parents bed with an explanatory note (so they'd be sure to leave presents for a little girl and not a shaving kit for my dad...I wanted all bases covered).

[Speak Noevil]

08:48 PM on 01/07/2012

Oh My God! Jesus. The Savior was NOT even born in the winter.

[accelerando]

06:08 PM on 01/08/2012

nobody knows when, so the church picked a useful date--one that the Romans were accustomed to celebrating the Unconquered Sun. The celebrations and customs already in place were easily "baptized" and the unconquered sun itself was not such a bad metaphor to use in teaching.

[Speak Noevil]

06:35 PM on 01/08/2012

I do. I know when He was born. The scriptures point it out & so does the seasons! :)

[Djay0252]

11:30 AM on 01/09/2012

The important part was that He was born.

[Speak Noevil]

03:40 PM on 01/09/2012

HalleluYah!

[ninetailedfox]

06:56 PM on 01/07/2012

Some of these pictures look like something from a nightmare. My dreams are much nicer than this. (then again, Im no longer christian and I dont dream like THEY do)

[TheLadyOphelia]

09:14 PM on 01/06/2012

It seems from the photos that women are relegated to the sides lines and don't get to do any of the fun stuff, like dressing up and parading around. What's with that? Don't women count in this? Jesus couldn't have gotten here without a woman!!!

[Felix Soto]

11:54 AM on 01/07/2012

a great opportunity for you to dress as you already are and walk right in on the parade.

[WesStrikesBack]

06:33 PM on 01/06/2012

My $.02 on the Epiphany.

This story is included in the story of Jesus' birth to show that even Eastern religions would proclaim the Anointed (Christ) child named Jesus a true King of the World.

It's sort of like all the sleight-of-hand and petty cons that were attributed to Jesus, and that have been found to be common hucksterism in first Century Judea.

When you're trying to sell a ridiculous story (for instance, a tortured zombie born from a virgin is able to remove a blemish on our soul resulting from a rib-woman' temptation), you need to break out some pretty hefty buckets of BS:

1) When Jesus died, Jerusalem went black for three hours and zombies roamed the streets. Strangely, the exhaustive Roman Imperial Record counts every amphora of wine coming into Jerusalem, but somehow neglects to mention a day turning to night and the living dead wandering through the town.

2) Jesus performed miracles. No one who saw any of these miracles wrote of them. In fact, most contemporary accounts of Jesus' life took place generations after his death.

3) Jesus was born from a virgin. Free bottle of wine for anyone who can discover a LITERATE culture that does not employ a virgin-birth myth or the like.

4) Jesus was resurrected. But the Roman army, who had him executed for high crimes, never bothered with an attempt to prove or disprove whether their prisoner had indeed escaped.

[WesStrikesBack]

06:33 PM on 01/06/2012

(Part 2)

The crux of this whole argument is that human beings are bad liars. When they do lie, they lie a lot like spoiled children--they lie to impress on a grand scale. And we all know in our heart of hearts that zombies did not walk the Holy Land, that the Romans did not somehow miss a sky blackened in the middle of a day, and a talking snake and an apple did not honestly decide the fate of every human's soul.

Arguing whether the wise men were 3 or 8, whether Zoroastrian or otherwise. It's a lie piled on top of a lie. And as my wife will tell you, that's a certain way to get you into trouble.

Summation: the Bible has been revised and rewritten so many times that what is truth and what are lies used to support other lies have become so tangled, that the religion has split into (get this) 35,000 sects. If there were a Judeo-Christian God of Love and Providence, would he really allow his message to be shattered into 35,000 belief-systems? Or we can apply Occam's Razor and assume that when 35,000 attempts are made at something, and still fail, the original premise is false.

[plavo]

08:31 PM on 01/06/2012

There is much poetry used to describe the core of the Judaeo-Christian faith; one cannot read all of that with only "2012" eyes; now tell me Jesus' message and demands of J-Christian behavior are "made-up" by humans, or a human

[WesStrikesBack]

12:36 PM on 01/07/2012

You could not prove Jesus existed in a court of law, and certainly Jesus' message was filtered through two generations of hearsay--no one who wrote the New Testament ever saw Jesus alive.

So certainly I could prove that *religion* Christianity is more about Paul than Christ, and certainly the original words and definitions of Christianity were created by non-God humans.

[WesStrikesBack]

12:32 PM on 01/07/2012

I have no problem with those that read religious texts poetically/metaphorically. That's the way they are meant to function: to teach and guide individuals through their life in a specific society, with specific rules that teach lessons that support the aims of their culture.

I find a poetic turn of phrase in Psalms, the Upanishads, the Noble Eight Fold Path.

The greatest minds of comparative mythology: Jung, Frazer, Campbell, all believed that the myths and poems were the power in religion. And that when religion becomes concrete--read like a newspaper instead of a metaphor, that's when trouble begins.

Myth is of the spirit.

Religion is about oppression.

[thisNewFoundLand]

06:18 PM on 01/06/2012

..Epiphany is a marvelous tradition. In Nfld, the custom of mummering was traditionally held "old Christmas Day". Mummers are still active; though these days they can be received any day of the Season.

[jokamachi]

05:08 PM on 01/06/2012

That reminds me I have to take down the Christmas lights tomorrow... and set free those atheists I have locked up in my basement.

[WesStrikesBack]

06:17 PM on 01/06/2012

> or at least bring us a sandwich and a bucket!

[thisNewFoundLand]

06:35 PM on 01/06/2012

...lol. January 7th: the day of the skeptic!

[wintercreeks]

02:50 PM on 01/06/2012

Visit Richard Thomas photography slide show at...
http://win­tercreeks.­biz

[BurtonDesque]

06:21 PM on 01/06/2012

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[Felix Soto]

11:57 AM on 01/07/2012

richard thomas had orter become a priest hiself.

[wintercreeks]

02:48 PM on 01/06/2012

Very inspirational links...
http://wintercreeks.biz

[Syllogizer]

02:27 PM on 01/06/2012

I am not sure where the auithor gets the idea that Epiphany is considered MORE important than Christmas among the Orthodox. Both are less important than Pascha (Easter), both are among the Twelve Great Feasts, both were originally celebrated on the same date -- as the Ethiopians still do.

[syntax facit saltum]

03:17 PM on 01/06/2012

I have been reading from Orthodox writers that it is. I hadn't known that. I had thought Christmas was the second most important feast. But instead, Theophany is. Many years to you!

[busterggi]

01:30 PM on 01/06/2012

The wise men were called magi, i.e.: they were priests of Zoroaster and the whole story is stolen from that religion.

The bible also never says there were three of them or gives their names. Nor did they supposedly visit Jesus until he was about two years old and not 12 days after his birth, which the bible says was sometime in the spring - not in December.

But when stealing myths from another religions as the Abrahamic religions all do its not surprising that the details get mixed up.

[syntax facit saltum]

03:18 PM on 01/06/2012

Theophany celebrates the baptism of Christ.

[P3]

04:15 PM on 01/06/2012

hi syntax, for the unorthodox:

"Epiphany is a Christian celebration of the revelation of the birth of Jesus to the wider world"

have a happy 2012
:-)

[Felix Soto]

11:58 AM on 01/07/2012

jews don't get baptised.