Well, are you ready for the end of the Christmas season?
But Rachel, you ask, hasn't the Christmas season ended already? You know, back in December?
Good question! But the answer is actually no. The Christmas season is not over.
The Christmas season ends with January 6th: Epiphany.
The evening of January 5th, the Twelfth Day of Christmas, is the eve of Epiphany. In England, they call it Twelfth Night. (Shakespeare, anyone?) Twelfth Night is a celebration of the journey of the three Wise Men and a preparation for Epiphany. In colonial America, Christmas wreaths were kept on the door and Christmas trees were kept up until January 5th. On Twelfth Night, they were taken down to prevent bad luck, and any edible decorations were given as gifts. In England and other parts of Europe---and in New Orleans as well---a King cake is served to celebrate the day. A bean or small trinket is baked inside the cake, and whoever gets the slice with the "gift" inside becomes king (or queen) for a day.
Why have such a celebration on the night before Epiphany? Because Epiphany is not just the end of the Christmas season. It is also a day of celebration in itself.
January 6th is the day we remember the Wise Men visiting Jesus Christ. In Ireland, on Epiphany, the Three Kings are not added to the Nativity scene until this day. Latin America and Spain, as well as a few other European nations, give gifts on this day instead of Christmas. In Spanish, Epiphany is called "El Día de Tres Reyes," or Three Kings Day. The Tres Reyes bring gifts to the children instead of Santa Claus. Every culture has different names for the Wise Men, but we English-speakers call them by Latin names: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. Traditionally, they are used to represent old age, middle age, and youth; and they represent Europe, Asia, and Africa.
In the United Methodist Church, we don't always celebrate Epiphany on January 6th. Even though Epiphany always falls on this day, this day---like Christmas and other important days---is not always a Sunday. This year, Epiphany Sunday fell on January 4th, and this was the day our church remembered the Wise Men.
Why do we end the Christmas season with the Three Kings, Rachel? Why not just end it with Christmas? We talked about the Wise Men on that day, too.
Another excellent question. And my answer: I don't really know.
Much of what we do to celebrate in church comes from traditions handed down to us by our ancestors, who celebrated these days in church because their ancestors did. So I don't have a 100 percent accurate answer for you. What I can give you instead is a theory.
My theory is this: we end the Christmas season with the Three Wise Men because the Christmas story doesn't end with the day Jesus is born. Jesus' story, like most people's, doesn't begin and end in a single day. The creation story in Genesis took seven days. Isn't it fitting that the story of the Creator takes longer? Jesus was born, and angels sang, and a star shone in the sky. And that was one day. Jesus went to the temple in Jerusalem as a baby and Simeon wept. That was many days later. And then, somewhere between Day 40 and Day 730, three Gentiles from foreign nations found a young child that they knew was the Messiah, and they worshiped him. And that was another day.
But it was more than just an ordinary day. It was an end, but also a beginning. The story of the Wise Men ends the Christmas story because it also begins the story of Jesus' ministry. These three non-Jews, who knew only bits and pieces of Scripture, were converted that day to believers in the Christ child. And when that child grew up and began to preach, He spoke not just to the Jewish people, but to all people. He spoke also to Gentiles like the Wise Men, and like us.
Epiphany is a day of transition from the story of Jesus' birth---the miracle that gave the world hope---to the story of Jesus' life, the story that gives ALL PEOPLE hope.
That is why, near and far, we celebrate the Wise Men and all they symbolize on January 6th.
Happy Twelfth Night!!!
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