THE
P RTAL
January 2016
Page 20
The Epiphany
Just what do we celebrate at the Epiphany?
Our new columnist, the Revd Julian Green,
opens the doors of the Epiphany for us
When I
was a child, we were a family who followed the tradition of decorating
our house for the festivities as late as the day before Christmas Eve, and left
the crib, the tree and other decorations in place until twelfth night. This observance was tinged by the rather
superstitious idea that it might bring ‘bad luck’ if they were dismantled earlier or later.
It has always been, however, a disappointment that
others did not get the importance of this feast day, and
today it seems that most people are oblivious of its
existence.
This has been aided and abetted, it has to be said,
by our bishops, who have consigned the celebration of
the Epiphany in the Roman Rite to the nearest Sunday.
I believe this downgrades the celebration. When I was
a seminarian in Spain, twenty years ago, there was in
that country a far greater awareness of the feast day.
Santa Claus and cakes
the bitterness of the tomb of the Saviour who would
die to save his people. However, the wise men’s visit
is only the first moment of revelation. We see in the
Baptism of the Lord and in the Wedding at Cana
further moments of revelation.
rend the heavens and come down
It was during a talk given by a Coptic Orthodox priest
only about ten years ago, that I came to understand
the full force of how these later biblical events are
‘epiphany’. He referred to the text of Isaiah 64:1, where
the prophet cries out to God, saying: “O that you would
rend the heavens and come down”. This text is fulfilled
at the Baptism of the Lord.
The tradition of exchanging gifts on the feast of
Epiphany, with the three kings taking the place of
the more commercial Santa Claus, made the feast
Although Christ was the Word-made-flesh from the
something with far more cultural attachment. I moment of his Incarnation, yet in his public ministry,
remember the displays in the cake shops of Roscones this is the first moment when he reveals who he is, and
de Reyes, cakes made in the shape of a crown, decorated who he is in relation to the Father an H