The whirlwind will soon die down, all the buying of gifts, wrappings, tinsel, ornaments, strings of colored lights tied around trees,and houses, and fences, carols being played or sung; the whirlwind spinning faster than a Marshall Field’s revolving door will soon come to an end. We will have finished our preparations to celebrate this most Holy Day.
When Christmas is over, what will we find? The holiday season generates so much build up, so much hype. Merchants will now begin their sales campaign in September. So much for Halloween pumpkins or Thanksgiving turkeys, the fast-forward button is pressed and we are immediately transported from sunbathing at the beach to riding on a sleigh through a snow-covered winter wonderland.
Where is the patience for society being able to handle, let alone honor the calendar passage of time?
What do you do after you open the presents, eat the holiday dinner, watch the Christmas Day football games? What do you do after you start to pack up the Christmas decorations, take down the Christmas tree and the lights and put away the Nativity scene?
I know a minister friend of mine who will deliberately keep the Nativity scene up through the new year, maybe even having it visible through the Lenten Season. There is a visual reminder here that the birth of Jesus, the Incarnation really has a significant meaning in our lives.
There are various ways that the presence of the Incarnation gift can still be felt after the celebration of Christmas. Some churches, including Trinity Episcopal Church, Owensboro, Ky, will observe a Feast Of The Epiphany and Twelfth Night celebration.
“The Epiphany is set on January 6 20128 and Twelfth Night will be observed January 7 2018.
The Epiphany signals the official end of Christmas and marks the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. The name ‘epiphany’ is actually Greek and means ‘manifestation’ with the date itself being a celebration of God coming to Earth as a human in the form of his son. The date is also when the Three Kings (aka the Three Wise Men) arrived to meet the baby Jesus after following a bright star to Bethlehem and handed over their gifts of gold (to symbolise his royal standing), frankincense (to symbolise his divine birth) and myrrh (to symbolise his mortality). And in case you didn’t know – frankincense and myrrh are both fragrances. Frankincense is a milk-white resin extracted from Boswellia trees and myrrh is a reddish resin from the Commiphora myrrh tree. The Three Kings, known as the ‘Magi’, were called Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar. Some suggest they are meant to represent Europe, Arabia and Africa. Why is it called the Twelfth Night?
In the olden days Christmas wasn’t just a one-day event – it was actually celebrated for 12 days. This began on Christmas Eve, December 24, and was celebrated every day up until the Epiphany. The 12 days begin on Christmas Day. That means that January 6th was celebrated just as much as Christmas Day itself. This was the tradition from the medieval period up until the 19th century. Nowadays the Twelfth Night is when we are meant to put away our Christmas decorations to avoid bad luck for the year ahead. If you miss the date, some say to avoid bad luck you need to keep the decorations up until Candalmas on February 2. “ What is the Epiphany and Twelfth Night? How Three Kings fit into the ...metro.co.uk › Lifestyle › Christmas
There is celebration after Christmas Day for the gift of the Incarnation, of God becoming human in the person of Jesus, for our lives.
May we be wise to follow the star that will bring us new light now and always.
May it be so.