The mixing of cultures between Christianity and Eastern Orthodox tends to confuse some. Even the song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" does not convey the mixture in the best of ways, but it does point to the Epiphany as the 12th day. In short, Epiphany is when the "Three Kings" arrived with their gifts for the Baby Jesus at the manger. On our calendar that is always January 6th---the 12th day of Christmas. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, it is the Festive Day of the Three Kings.
Talk about the commercialization of Christmas and we tend to leave it all with Christmas Day when the neatly wrapped presents are under the tree and the stockings are hung with care. Thank goodness for the Eastern Orthodox that still end Christmas with the Epiphany! Our Epiphany seems to be after the kids have torn through the wrappings like a tornado. The commercialization even continues after Christmas. The lighting companies come around to start taking down the strings of lights for another year. Such was the case in downtown Garland on the square. The beautiful multi colored lights in neat diamond patterns that hang from the trees and the red bows and garland that crossed the streets from light pole to light poles were coming down for another year.
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| Workers high above the trees reach for the strings of lights. |
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| The trees on the square were all connected with lights. |
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| Boxes of Red Bows are packed away for this coming December. |
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| It's about a two day operation to take down these strings of lights. Watching the men work was amazing at how well they went about their job. There was a small microwave on a brick planter where the men heated up their coffee and lunches. An all things being Texas, the cans of Dr. Pepper was the drink of choice for breaks! |
