Twelth Night – Mikebob's World

The Feast of the Epiphany is traditionally celebrated on January sixth. This celebration marks the visit of the magi to see Jesus and worship him as the newborn King of the Jews. It is the end of the Christmas holidays as they used to be celebrated and in my own opinion should still be celebrated. Put the tree up later bake some treats after Christmas, maybe even save some gifts for this particular feast. Remember this celebrates the first people outside of Mary, Joseph, and some shepherds who knew who Jesus was.

I often wondered what the word epiphany means. I had never really heard the word used outside the context of the holy day. Epiphany means a manifestation of a divine or supernatural being. In this case, the birth of Christ is revealed to the whole world the Jewish people being represented by the Shepherds and the gentile world is represented by the magi.

Matthew’s Gospel is the only Gospel that tells of the visit of the kings and you can read it there. Time and tradition have embellished the story what we do know for sure is the Magi came from the east following a star. The star disappeared as they approached Jerusalem and they went to King Herod who ascertained from the scriptures where the child would be born and sent the magi on their way telling them to come back and report to him when they had found the child so that he could worship him as well. Herod was deceiving the Magi as he desired to kill the child. As the Magi left Jerusalem the star reappeared and led them to a house where they found the baby and his mother Mary and presented gifts of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. They were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod and returned to their homes using a different route.

That’s what we know. Here is what we have embellished. It was at some time decided that there were three of them. That they were not only Magi but Kings and that their names were Caspar, Melchior, and Belshazzar. Also, that each was of a different race. One white, one Asian, and One Black.

The Feast of Epiphany is also the twelfth day of Christmas as you may remember from the song the gift was twelve drummers drumming. These twelve drummers are meant to represent points of belief in The Apostles Creed.

The Feast of the Epiphany is also known as 12^th Night and it is the last day of Christmas. There used to be 12^th Night parties where games like Snapdragon were played. I have always wanted to try to play Snapdragon. The game is mentioned in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and also in Agatha Christie’s Halloween Party. The game is pretty simple. You get a big plate full of raisins you douse the raisins with plenty of brandy and light it on fire. You then try to pick raisins out of the blazing plate without getting burned. And yes this was a children’s game.

There is also a 12the Night Cake. It is made from Puff Pastry and filled with almond crème. In the cake is placed a ring or a tiny baby representing Jesus. Whoever gets the slice of cake with the ring or the baby gets declared King of the Feast and is given a crown to wear.

Of course, all of this is gone now. The Catholic Church has moved the Feast of Epiphany to the Sunday after Christmas and not many protestant churches recognize it at all, at least not in the United States. And yet we sing about it. We Three Kings is the song of the magi. It’s not a Christmas Carol but a 12^th night song. And The Little Drummer boy which is completely fictitious is also a staple throughout the Christmas season but is never heard after Christmas as it should be.

Some biblical historians believe that the magi arrived about two years after Jesus’ birth. There is some logic behind this. The scriptures tell us that the Magi found the child in a house which means they had moved out of the stable where Jesus was born. Herod asked the Magi when the star appeared and when he realized that the Magi were not coming back to him had all the babies two years and younger killed in Bethlehem. This is known as The Slaughter of the Innocents and is the basis for another Christmas carol The Coventry Carol. It is thought that the star appeared on the night of Jesus’ birth and it took two years for the Magi to reach him.

I am of the school of thought that says we go back to the old ways. Let’s celebrate all 12 days of Christmas. Let’s not set up our trees right after Thanksgiving but just a day or two before December 25^th. Let’s have parties and gatherings straight through until January the sixth and have one last fling that night before we enter into our dull winter routines. Christmas could be more fun that way and maybe even less stressful. We could have dinner parties for twelve nights straight and see all of our family members. Those twelve days, if observed could bring a whole new dimension to Christmas.

On January the sixth let’s take a moment to remember what the word epiphany means. >The manifestation of a divine being”. It is acknowledging to the world that we believe Jesus was fully God and fully man as the scriptures attest to. In many ways, it is an act of faith to celebrate this day and one I believe we can all profit from.

It is said that two groups of people were allowed to see the baby Jesus those who knew they knew nothing, the shepherds and those who knew they didn’t know everything, the magi.

The holiday season is now upon us. If you are like everybody else you face the next 6 weeks or so with a mixture of Joy and Dread. I hope that the joy will outweigh the dread but for many, this is not the case.

Why do we allow the most joyous time of year to become a burden? Why do the stores dress for Christmas before we’ve gotten rid of the last bite of Halloween candy? I blame President Roosevelt.

Before WW2 no one thought about Christmas until about a week before. The Holiday Season began on December the twenty-fifth, Christmas Day, and ended on January sixth, The Feast of The Epiphany, the celebration of when the Wisemen came to Bethlehem. So all the fun stuff we do now, before the 25^th, like Christmas Parties and multiple family visits were all done after the 25^th. There was even a party held on the eve of The Epiphany called a 12^th Night Party and people would gather to play games and sing songs and enjoy themselves. This 12^th-night party is mentioned in Stave 3 of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol when Scrooge is visited by The Ghost of Christmas Present. Twelfth Night should remind you of the song The Twelve Days of Christmas because those were the 12 days that are mentioned in the song. The time between December 25^th and January 6^th.

President Roosevelt changed that with a very small snowball that rolled downhill and turned into a snow monster. He asked that everyone do their Christmas shopping extra early so that packages being mailed to soldiers either here or overseas would arrive before Christmas, This was a great idea for the soldiers but it turned into what we have now. Roosevelt even tried to move Thanksgiving from the fourth Thursday in November to the third to allow people more time to shop, Thankfully he did not succeed in this endeavor.

If you watch the I Love Lucy Christmas show you’ll notice that they don’t get a tree until Christmas Eve or decorate at all. Black Friday, the big sale day after Thanksgiving, did not begin its yearly craziness until the 1950s and then grew stronger thru the 60s and seventies. Now Black Friday can either make or break many businesses.

The history of Black Friday has nothing to do with retail. How retail adapted the name seems shrouded in mystery. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving was given its name by Philadelphia Policemen. In the early days of football, the Army-Navy game was played on the day after Thanksgiving. This would bring many visitors and tourists to Philadelphia. This caused the police departments to have their officers work overtime and pull extra shifts at a time when the rest of the country was taking a break. So the Philadelphia cops named the day Black Friday.

And with a Bang Christmas is upon us. If you live in the most typical of North American homes you don’t even get a chance to enjoy your Thanksgiving leftovers before the shopping frenzy starts. As the years have gone by this frenzy has gotten worse. This year the stores are claiming you’d better get all your shopping done immediately or the gifts you want to buy won’t be available with our current worker shortage. In times past the big stores and malls were opening at Midnight on Black Friday or any early hour of the morning. I remember back in the early days of early store openings going with my brother-in-law to Best Buy and waiting in quite a line for a 6 a.m. opening. The doors opened and insanity struck. People pushing and pulling and even slamming folks into other aisles to get to the sale item they wanted. I never went to an early opening again.

The message seemed to be “Thanksgiving is over now let’s kill each other.” This is not the message of Thanksgiving or the message of Christmas.

Maybe it’s time to start slowing down. Yes, there is a lot of preparation for Christmas but do we have to begin that preparation on Black Friday? I want our retail stores to have great Christmas sales, but they can get our money a few days or even weeks later. We will buy gifts and shop just not that day. I think we should have Blue Friday. In fact, Sky Blue Friday.

On Sky Blue Friday we take up where we left off on Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving, we gave thanks to God and maybe to the people who made our lives a little better or helped us through hard times our focus was outward. Not thinking about ourselves but of God and other people. On Sky Blue Friday I believe we should look inward. It has been said that an “unexamined life is not worth living,” yet many of us rarely take the time to examine where we are or who we are. We don’t ask if who we are is who we want to be?

Self-examination can be hard but it is also a gift we can give ourselves. In Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is forced to examine his own life by looking at his past, seeing his present, and getting a glimpse of what his future would be if he persisted in his present course. On Sky Blue Friday we should do the same examine our past and present and see where our current, attitudes, beliefs, jobs, work ethic, relationships, and hobbies may be leading us. If all is well then there is nothing to do if all is NOT well then we need to determine what changes need to be made and make them.

Black Friday being replaced by Sky Blue Friday can lead us right into the next part of the holiday season, Advent. Advent is the four weeks leading up to Christmas Day. It is celebrated in Churches as the four Sundays before Christmas. More often than not the first Sunday of Advent will fall on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The traditional Advent Calendars that you buy in the store with the little windows that open up begin on December first but that is not the Advent season.

Advent is a special time. At Easter, we go through Lent and in some way try to participate in the sufferings of our savior. In Advent, we are looking forward to the coming of our Savior, and this is with great excitement and joy because we know what he brings will be good. For the Christian, we look to the past for the birth of Jesus into this world and to the future for his promised return.

Advent is a time of preparation. Many churches have Advent Wreaths as part of the season but this is also something you can do with your family or even by yourself. Advent candles and wreaths are available on Amazon or you could easily make one yourself with fresh evergreen branches some wire and candle holders. You can check out the Gospel for each day on the liturgical calendar. Both Catholics and Protestants use this calendar. On the first Sunday of Advent, you light the first candle read that day’s Gospel, and say a short prayer. Maybe even sing some carols or turn on the Christmas Music. Then each of the following days you do the same reading the Gospel for the day. If you want to make it simpler there are many advent devotionals you can use if the liturgical calendar isn’t for you.

This is a great way to spend Advent it will slow you down and it will help you focus on what we are really celebrating. If you’re reading this and you are not a Christian do this anyway. There are a lot of bad things being said about Christians these days and most of them are false. If you prepare for Christmas this way you’ll get a taste of who Jesus was and is and it may make your celebration even more joyful. You may find yourself wanting to know more about Jesus.

Speaking of Joy, did you know that the song Joy to the World is not actually a Christmas song. It’s not about Jesus first coming over 2000 years ago, although we sing it with that in mind. The lyricist’s intention was this song to herald the second coming of Jesus. This is the song we will be singing when Christ comes back as he promised he would. Now we sing it in anticipation of that event.

There are so many ways to slow down in this upcoming season. Take in a concert, See a production of A Christmas Carol. There will be a whole lot about A Christmas Carol in an upcoming Blog. Better yet read A Christmas Carol. The book has so much more than any filmed version. I haven’t forgotten Thanksgiving. Here’s a last word. God gives us the sunshine and the rain. He makes the crops grow and so supplies us with food. He gave us life and each of our lives is precious to Him. When you sit down with whomever you share Thanksgiving with or if you are by yourself take one second, a moment and remember all He has done.

Thanks for reading and Happy Thanksgiving!