The holiday season may be over for some people on New Year’s Day, but some Christians have another holiday to wait after Christmas.
Every year, on the twelfth day of Christmas, January 6, Ephipany (also known as Day of the Three Kings) is celebrated as a day of Christian feast. For many Christians, the holiday season does not end until Epiphany, which marks the biblical adoration of the baby Jesus by the three kings (who are also known as the Magi). According to the Gospel of Saint Matthew, the three kings followed a star to reach Jesus in the manger where he was born in Bethlehem.
“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Judea, during the time of King Herod, the wise men from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who was born king of the Jews? We saw his star when she was born and we have come to worship him, ”” says the Gospel of Saint Matthew.
“After hearing the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen at birth was ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were radiant. For the house, they saw the child with his mother Maria, and they fell down and worshiped him. So they opened their treasures and presented him with gold, frankincense and myrrh. “
The kings offered the infant gold, frankincense and myrrh. The Huffington Post notes that gold is attributed to royalty, since Jesus is the “king of the Jews”. The frankincense represents the sacred presence of Jesus as the son of God. Finally, myrrh, which is normally used as a preservative, symbolizes that Jesus was mortal and would die for our sins in the future.
Franco Origlia / Getty Images
According to ABC10, children who celebrate Epiphany traditionally leave their shoes outside the house on January 5 and find toys and gifts in them the next morning. This is reminiscent of how Jesus received gifts from the Three Wise Men. People usually remove their Christmas trees and decorations at Epiphany or the day before, which marks the end of the 12 days of Christmas. If you leave it like this after Epiphany, it is believed to bring bad luck.
In times without a pandemic, the Three Kings Day is typically celebrated with parades and other events around the world. In Spain, the party day is marked by happy parades. In Belgium, children dress like the three wise men and sing from door to door. Rosca de Reyes, or Kings Cakes, are cooked in Mexico to celebrate Epiphany. These cakes have a small clay or porcelain statue of the baby Jesus hidden in the cake.