Yesterday Was Three Kings Day: Epiphany

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.

Workers high above the trees reach for the strings of lights.

The trees on the square were all connected with lights.

Boxes of Red Bows are packed away for this coming December.

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!

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.

Encyclopedias, Compendiums, Complete Compendiums and Manuals on Fat Tuesday

Even though it will vary from year-to-year, it still has a way of sneaking up on you. But I have discovered a way to "not be so surprised". It's a lunar thing, basically. Or, at the least, follows a lunar calendar. It's still got that little Pagenistic twang to it, left over from the Romans invading the Celts and tearing down their alters and having the Celts build Roman alters. Of course, the Celts were really smart and built the Roman alters over their old torn down alters and went on like nothing ever happened.The Romans being non-the-wiser. There has been encyclopedias, compendiums, complete compendiums and manuals written about Mardi Gras.

It seems that the church calendar year is really tied to lunar cycles more than we think, but the one that resonates with many throughout the Christian world seems to be the one I can never remember.
That would be, of course, Fat Tuesday, Shove Tuesday or as the French still say today, Mardi Gras, which literally means, "Fat Tuesday".  It is, in fact, a 47 day stretch before Easter Sunday and since Easter is determined by--you got it-- lunar cycles, that is why the date moves forward or backwards from year-to-year.  As another indication of lunar cycles, Epiphany is the earliest that Carnival, Mardi Gras can occur and it must end by midnight on Fat Tuesday as Ash Wednesday begins Lent, the period of fasting before Easter.

Of course, it is highly ordained as a cultural event because Mardi Gras is the period when all the fat things and crazy things are done before confession or Shovetide or Shove Tuesday. Therefore, in various regions, celebrations will vary and the traditional celebrations will most always include a "King's Cake".

A couple of days ago I was in my friendly K-roger store and as I walked past the bakery tables, there were stacks and stacks of big colorful boxes of iced and sparkled King Cakes. The cakes only come out this time of year. The little plastic baby Jesus if usually hidden in the cake, but in today's age of  what ever it is--- the little baby Jesus is on top in plain sight so as not to offend or to cause a chocking hazard. Frankly, it was better when you grew up and you parents talked to you from early on about finding the baby Jesus in the cake and to be careful. Of course, that common sense thing does not exist today in parenting, Which I find to be so sad.

Mardi Gras Beads thrown on February 17th in 2015. 2016 will be on February 9th and 2017 will be on February 28th