Christmas is finally, really over- yesterday (Monday) was “Twelfth Night”, the end of the traditional Christmas season and the eve of Epiphany. Tonight we walked to church in the bitter cold of -10 degrees, or colder, to celebrate the Divine Liturgy of the feast.
Epiphany (also “Theophany”) is traditionally celebrated outside, on the shore of a nearby lake where the priest can immerse his cross during the ceremony for the blessing of the waters. No chance of that being possible here- the ice on our nearest lake is several feet thick.
The cold pulls tears from your eyes, only to have them freeze on your cheeks. You can wear extra layers, warm mittens and a fur cap, but you have to keep your eyes uncovered in any event. I’m glad for my beard.
Epiphany is the great forgotten feast of Western Christianity. Considering the number of non-Christians who enjoy celebrating Christmas in some form or another of it’s various secular manifestations, it might easily qualify as the greatest holiday of the year. Most Christians (I hope!?) understand that Easter/Pasha is the highest and holiest of our religious holidays, and I suspect many (most?) would say that Christmas was the second.
How many ever learned that from the days of the apostles until quite recently, Christians throughout the world would have told you that after Pascha, in rank of precedence, came the feasts of Pentecost, then Epiphany, and then- fourth place and several centuries later- Christmas.
Trying to explain why the sinless, incarnate God submitted to baptism by John is beyond me. As usual on these occasions, I refer you most earnestly to Fr. Stephen’s wonderful blog, Glory to God for All Things.
S’prazdnikom!
Filed under: Alaska, Christianity, Christmas, Life, Orthodoxy, Religion
