Epiphany Celebrations

[AnnieClaus]

Curious-

Does anyone do anything for the Epiphany (January 6th?) My grandmother always waited until this date to take down her Christmas decorations and an old neighbor told me that he does the same.

I read into it a little bit and a lot of people have a special dinner or gather together with friends. Some churches even have services.

I was thinking about having a small dinner with family and treat it as a "send off to the holidays."

Wondering if anyone else celebrated.

Annie :bigsnow:

 

[jackfrosty]

That sounds like a great idea! It's my nephew's birthday so we celebrate that! :grin:

 

[momof4]

We do celebrate Epiphany.

A day or so after New Years I get the wise men and their camels from our nativity set out (they are still packed away) and place them somewhere in the house. Each night I put them somewhere else as they make their way to finding baby Jesus in the stable. The kids have fun looking for them each morning. On the morning of Epiphany, they are at the stable and have left some gold chocolate coins for the kids.

We use that day as the day we take down the tree and any other Christmas-y decorations. (Santa stuff comes down within a few days of Christmas)

 

[Holiday Joy]

I love the idea of the traveling camels! I have friends who move Mary and Joseph throughout the house. Baby Jesus doesn't appear in the manger until Christmas morning. That would be fun to extend it to the camels as well.

We've never celebrated Epiphany, but this is a good year to start! I like the idea to use it as a final goodbye to the holidays. I forgot to use the decorated Christmas crackers (the treat-filled tubes, not the flatbreads ;-) ) this year, so that might be a good night for them.

I'd LOVE to hear some other ideas for marking the day.

 

[AnnieClaus]

Here's a link that lists what some countries do for Epiphany celebrations:


http://www.theworldwidegourmet.com/holi ... iphany.htm

 

[jackfrosty]

Cool! TFS!

 

[rockin_granola]

We move our Wise Men too ... they get closer and closer. We also leave our tree up until the evening of the 6th. And, the kids get 12 days of Christmas presents (just small things) until the 12th night.

I'm searching for more books to read to the kids during this time, too. Tomie DePaola has some neat ones and I'd love to extend our collection.

The last of our decorations are down and the house is returned to normal the morning of the 7th (Plough Monday or "Lost Monday")

And then I start thinking about Valentines :love: LOL

 

[Gidget]

Greetings all,

We will be celebrating 12th night (Little Christmas, Epiphany, Three Kings Day) on January the sixth. Our planned menu, an Old English supper, is:
*Wassail
*Meat pies
*Tossed green salad
Thin slices of whole wheat bread
*Spice cake (with two beans inside)

**In olden times Christmas decorations were burned, so after we un-etrim our tree, we save a few branched to burn in the fire; we sprinkle with rosemary, bay , and frakincense.
**We put the remainder of our tree outside. We cut our stringed cranberries and popcorn from their strings (it gives us peace-of-mind knowing that the birds will not get tangled in the string and hurt themselves), and use them to fill orange cups which we tuck among the branches for the birds to feast upon; the children enjoy making the treats for the birds.
**The table is set with a red cloth and white ironware. I have a large wood bowl for the centerpiece that I fill with ornament (from the tree), and we light the diningroom ablaze with candles.
**We usually have a few Christmas crackers left over, so the "king" and "queen" can crack them open and wear the crowns.
**This is the day that I place my wise men (three kings) in my nativity set - I place the baby Jesus in on Christmas day.
**One of my family members usually plays Christmas tunes on our piano, and we round off the Christmas season singing carols by the fire.
**I am sending each of my guest home with a small cloth drawstring bag (very easy to make) containing a gold coin ($1 Sacagawea coin) and a cone of incense that contains frankincense and myrrh

We find it a peaceful and relaxing way to top-off the Christmas season.

Gidget-

 

[Holiday Joy]

Gidget, these ideas are GREAT! We have an artificial tree, but I'll have to borrow some of the other ideas from you.

Where do you find the incense with frankincense and myrrh?

 

[AnnieClaus]

Gidget- I love it too!!!

Annie

 

[Gidget]

Holiday Joy -

I received the frankincense and myrrh incense as a Christmas gift; I was told that it can be purchased at religious supply stores.

Gidget -

 

[Holiday Joy]

Thanks, Gidget! I'll call around tomorrow and see what I can find! And at the very least, I'll do some hunting to see if I can find some to have on hand for next year.