The Epiphany or Christmas?
The subtitle of this Feast Day we’re celebrating today in the Book of Common Prayer is “The Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles.” This emphasizes that, from the moment of the Birth of Jesus Christ, the good news of His Coming is for all: Jew and Gentile, the wise and the simple, male and female. Nothing in the Greek texts of the gospels indicates that the Magi were all male, and even the number three and making them Kings, is a much later , non-scriptural tradition.
The date chosen to celebrate this feast goes back to the placing of the feast of the Nativity of Christ in the winter solstice: the north European pre-Christmas tradition of celebrating the birth of the Sun (not Son!) on 25 December differed from the Mediterranean and eastern tradition of having 6 January as the solstice. As often happens, the two dates merged into a beginning and an end of the same celebration.
The western church adopted the twelve days of Christmas, climaxing on the eve of Epiphany, or ‘Twelfth Night.’ The implication by the fifth century was that this was the night on which the Magi arrived. The complications of dating became even more confused with the changing in the west from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar, the Eastern church refusing to play any part in such radical change. So, this day remains the chief day of celebrating the Birth of Jesus in Eastern and other Orthodox Churches.
Here is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Prayer for today:
My greetings and Christmas blessings to our Orthodox brothers and sisters on this Feast of the Nativity. May you know the peace of Christ, and be bearers of His light in our world. Amen.
Happy Epiphany, everyone! Or should I say Happy Christmas?
