Epiphany: Or Why My Christmas Decorations Are Still Up
I know not everyone celebrates or observes Epiphany. In fact, Epiphany was a new concept for Phil! So I will explain like I did to my youth kids at our Christmas party.
I'm sure we've all heard the song The 12 Days of Christmas. If not, just click the link and read the lyrics. Have you ever wondered where the concept came from? Do you know when the twelve days of Christmas are?
You see, the twelve days of Christmas actually start on Christmas Day, making it the first day of Christmas. Why twelve days? Well, twelve days after Christmas comes to the date of January 6th. If you look at a calendar, January 6th is known as Epiphany. Epiphany is known in the church, (or at least in the Presbyterian church that I known for sure. I'm not sure what other denominations observe this day), as the day that the wise men finally made it to Bethlehem to give the Christ child their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. This is why Christians who observe/celebrate Epiphany keep their Christmas decorations up until Epiphany. If you want to be bibically correct, (bc as I call it), if you have a nativity scene, you don't place the baby Jesus in the manger until Christmas Day and you don't place the wise men around the scene until Epiphany. However, since you'd only have them out for 1 day, most people just leave the wise men and Jesus in the scene the whole season.
Is it starting to make sense? There are twelve days of gifts, starting on Christmas day, because it took the wise men that long to give their gifts to the King born in a manger. That's why our decorations will be up until Thursday evening. It's still technically the Christmas season in the church and we are happy to let it live on.
Hope that made sense and that I gave you something to think about. If nothing else, I just gave you an excuse to keep your decorations up just a little longer ;)
Peace to you,
"We Three Kings of Orient Are"
wow I never really knew this/understood this! thanks for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteit is starting to make sense! you know, my grandfather always used to tell me, "you learn something new everyday." so far...i think he's right. thanks for teaching me :)
ReplyDelete