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Happy New Year to all of you and Merry Christmas for those who follow the Julian Calendar!

I know that most of the christian nations have different traditions for the Epiphany and I'm curious about the names of the Eastern kings and the presents hey gave to Jesus.
I've known that the Ethiopians, Greeks and latins (italian, romanians, spanish) and slavs use different names, and also the Chaldeans.

If the kings were Persian, the chaldeans are right?? Just curious.

Christos Razdajetsja!

The names i was taught are: Kaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. Their gifts were of course, gold, Frankincense and myrrh, but I do not know who brought what.

The December 25th entry from "The Prologue from Ochrid" has the following:

...this star appeared nine months before the birth of the Lord Jesus; that is, at the time when the most holy Mother of God conceived Him. They spent nine months in studying this star, in preparing for the journey and in travelling. They arrived in Bethlehem very shortly after the birth of the Saviour of the world. One of them was called Melchior. He was old, withered, with long white hair and beard. He brought the Lord the gift of gold. The second man was called Caspar; ruddy of face, young and beardless. He brought the Lord the gift of frankincense. The third was called Balthazar; black-skinned and heavily bearded. He brought the Lord the gift of myrrh.

... It can be added that these three wise men represented the three chief races of men that descended from Noah's three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The Persian represented Japheth, the Arabian Shem and the Egyptian Ham. Thus it can be said that, through these three, the whole human race worshipped our incarnate Lord and God.

On this topic, I was told that the Blessing of Homes at Epipahny is a latinization. We have always done it. I would be very much opposed to having this custom eliminated.

Mrs. Olga Nimchek

Dear Olga,

I don't think the blessing of homes is a latinization. I'm not sure though. A pamphlet I have from Byzantine Seminary Press features the blessing of homes along with the blessing of water to be quite important Byzantine customs.

True it used to be done in the Latin church as well. The practice involved marking every doorway lintel with the initials of the 3 Magi inscribed between the numerals of the new year. For example this year would look like this:

"20 + C + M + B + 02"

But this custom has largely been abondoned, even here in our monastery.

As a child I always looked forward to Epiphany because we could finally finish setting out the creche set by adding the 3 Kings and their retinue to the other figures. There is a convent of Benedictine sisters that does this in a rather amusing way. They hide the figures just out of sight behind a pillar, or tucked in a corner and progressively move them closer to the manger scene as Epiphany approaches, kind of re-creating the journey of the wise men.

In fact I only begun to appreciate the significance of Epiphany since I have been a monk. In the Roman church the first day of the octave (Epiphany proper) is centered around the theme of the coming of the Magi to adore the Christ Child. 8 days later on the octave day is when we celebrate the baptism of Christ in the Jordan. Thrown in is the miracle at Cana when Christ turned water into wine. But it is all one mystery - the manifestation of the Savior! Unfortunately I think this is lost in most RC parishes, who - if lucky, see the coming of the Magi as the end of the Chriatmas story. I say "if lucky" because more are regarding Jan. 1st - the octave day of Christmas as the end of the holiday season since this corresponds to secular observance. Soon it will be pushed up to St. Stephen's [Boxing} day. Oh who am I kidding, for many this is already true! I remember from my childhood how my father born in Poland would be irritated at the neighbors throwing away their tree on Christmas afternoon! He thought it was nuts. He even wouldn't let us go Christmas shopping until Christmas Eve.

My mother, who is Slavic, calls this day "little Christmas." I'm not sure if that is due to Epiphany or Old Calendar Christmas - does anyone know? Well anyway, she would always save some of the holiday pastries & other goodies(kolache, etc.) she made for Dec. 25 and we would have a big festive meal.

Anyways,

Blessed Epiphany/Theophany to all!

Benedictine (another monk named Elias)

For Orthodox, the feast of 6 January is not Epiphany but Theophany -- ie, it isn't commemorating the Three Kings, but rather the baptism of Christ and manifestation of the Trinity.

Is the Epiphany blessing with holy water to be done on Epiphany Eve (Twelth night) or on Epiphany proper?

On Saturday (Eve of Theophany) the Ukranian Catholic priest blessed the holy water on the Eve of Epiphany. Do you go home and then bless the doors or wait till the next morning?

love in Christ,
Marshall

Dear Friends,

Just to pick up from Brendan, the correct Eastern term for our Lord's Baptism in the River Jordan is indeed Theophany and it is a Trinitarian Feast since it constitutes a revelation of all Three Persons Who made Their Presence known at the event.

The icon of the Theophany, along with those of Pentecost and the Transfiguration, are "Icons of the Holy Trinity" in the East (along with the Old Testament Trinity) and are the only ones permitted for liturgical use in representing the Trinity in the Eastern Church.

Initially, the Nativity, the Three Kings and the Theophany/Epiphany were all celebrated on the same day which January 6th/19th. The Armenian Apostolic Church stands alone among the Churches as continuing in this tradition and so Armenian Christmas is on January 6th (except for the Armenian Community in Israel which still follows the Old Calendar).

The Byzantine Church, like the Roman Church, moved the feast of the Nativity to December 25th/January 7th for the reasons we all know.

However, the Byzantine Church also moved the commmemoration of the Three Holy Kings to the Feast of the Nativity as well, while the Roman Church left its celebration on Epiphany. In many RC countries, January 6th is called "Three Kings' Day" (the West Indies, for example).

(The Byzantine Church also venerates as saints the shepherds who went to see our Lord in Bethlehem and they are listed in the calendar for the Nativity as well).

It was the Council of Trullo that decreed that Christmas was to be celebrated for a period of twelve days.

The term "Little Christmas" is still very popular and refers to the Twelfth Night of the Christmas season. It is most popular in Britain whose Anglican and Protestant communities did not accept the Gregorian or New Calendar until well into the 19th century and so continued to celebrate Christmas on January 6th (it became January 7th in the twentieth century).

Some corners of Britain still call Twelfth Night "Yule." "Little Christmas" actually recalls the time when the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord was celebrated in January following the Gregorian calendar reform.

There is a Glastonbury Thorn that is clipped each year and sent to The Queen as a Christmas tribute. It still blossoms on January 6th-7th!

The waters of Theophany are blessed, in my Church, both in the evening before and on the day of.

If the river freezes over, we hold the services there after cutting out an ice Cross. One year, Fr. George Couto (+memory eternal) held the full Divine Liturgy and blessing of the waters outside in the cold with procession etc.

The ancient tradition is, of course, that all Christians take the Holy Water of the Great Blessing of Theophany home with them for use. Priests can and do visit our homes to bless them with Holy Water. This is not a Latinization, as our Benedictine Father in Christ has said, but this in no way cancels our right as laity to bless our homes and other things ourselves.

Holy Water is an important part of our lives as Christians.

We should keep it with our icons in what we consider to be the most sacred spot of our Home Church.

We can and should drink a little of it "instead of Communion" in the morning before breakfast. We do this by Crossing ourselves and sipping it three times in the Name of the Holy Trinity.

We can bless ourselves with it and our homes, children, cars etc.

We can also bless our beds with it. Whenever there is an argument in the home, we should take out some Holy Water . . .

And you never know when you might use it to baptize someone on the point of death who could ask you to.

In the Ethiopian tradition, Christians go into the waters to re-live their Baptism. In many Churches, a metallic Dove representing the Holy Spirit is placed on a string above a vat of water.

The Dove then slowly moves toward the vat and when it gets to it, the Dove bends forward, pouring in Holy Oil into the water . . .

Following a tradition dating to St Peter, the newly baptized have a special blue cord placed on around their necks ("Matab"). St Peter apparently cut strings from his prayer shawl to do this and so prevent people from getting baptized twice. This is the ancestor of our chain with our Cross around our necks.

To this day, Eastern Christians visiting the River Jordan, don white cassocks and go into the waters as a kind of re-enactment of their baptism where our Lord was baptized by St John. The robes are then kept for all time.

These recall the robes of Baptism that Christians wore as adults and then wore each and every time they went to Church.

Alex

[ 01-09-2002: Message edited by: Orthodox Catholic ]