Epiphany & the 12 Days of Christmas!

Well, Christmas has come and gone. Hopefully it was a pleasant holiday for you and yours.

In the church calendar, Advent and Christmas are followed by a period called "Ordinary Time." This term, conveniently, refers to any time that isn't Advent or Lent (the season before Easter). Ordinary Time is filled with lots of little holidays, though, that vary from denomination to denomination. Not all of these are celebrated  by every church.

In the church, Christmas actually isn't just one day. Like most holy festivals - Chanukah, Ramadan, Chinese New Year - Christmas is traditionally celebrated over a period of time. We usually think that the 12 Days of Christmas begin before Christmas, with December 25 being Day 12. Wrong! The 12 Days of Christmas actually start on the night of Christmas Eve and lasts until January 6. The end of the Christmas season is marked by its own holiday, the Epiphany.

Epiphany remembers and celebrates when the wise men visited Jesus. It was more than 12 days later, but we shrink the whole Jesus story up to make it fit in one calendar year. Epiphany is always January 6, while Epiphany Sunday fluctuates. It's the Sunday closest to January 6.

As I said above, Epiphany Sunday remembers and celebrates when the wise men visited Jesus. Epiphany is a word that means "manifestation" or "showing." At the Epiphany, the wise men recognized that the Light of the World had manifested itself, had shown up. That's why they traveled - to visit the King.

The wise men, also called Magi, were from Persia. Magi means king - equivalent to emperor, pharaoh, etc. Think "we three kings." These kings were fancy, also studying math and science, especially astronomy. Some scholars believe that the wise men were Zoroastrian priests. Zoroastrianism is actually the world's oldest monotheistic religion (that we know of, I suppose), even older than Judaism. The religion gets its name from Zoroaster, a prophet who solidified most of the teachings. He was not God, and no one thought he was. They just named it after him. I guess this is very similar to how Mormons are called after the prophet who compiled our holy book, the Book of Mormon.

According to the story, the wise men were waiting for Israel's king. By studying the stars, they learned that the king had come, and they traveled to where Jesus was. And, though we put these nice gift-bearers in our nativities, it may have taken them up to two years to travel.

Today, we put stars atop our trees in remembrance of the star that shone when Jesus was born. It was the light of the star that helped the wise men know where they should go. We remember the coming of the Light of the World and we remember that it took time for the wise men to travel. Just like we don't just *snap* arrive at the Lord's feet. We've a journey, too. But no worries - we know God leads us home.

The voice of the Lord came unto him, saying:

Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets. . . .

And it came to pass that the words which came unto Nephi were fulfilled, according as they had been spoken; for behold, at the going down of the sun there was nodarkness; and the people began to be astonished because there was no darkness when the night came. . . .

And they began to know that the Son of God must shortly appear; yea, in fine, all the people upon the face of the whole earth from the west to the east, both in the land north and in the land south, were so exceedingly astonished that they fell to the earth.

For they knew that the prophets had testified of these things for many years, and that the sign which had been given was already at hand . . .

And it came to pass that there was no darkness in all that night, but it was as light as though it was mid-day. And it came to pass that the sun did rise in the morning again, according to its proper order; and they knew that it was the day that the Lord should be born, because of the sign which had been given.

3 Nephi 1:12-19