What is the Epiphany - Catholic Family Traditions

One of the many new traditions we learned about when we became Catholic was the Solemnity of the Epiphany of Our Lord. I can remember my grandmother telling me about how her family always kept the Christmas tree up until Epiphany, but it never really occurred to me to ask why. Now that my husband and I have become Catholic we really enjoy celebrating the feast of the epiphany and we learn a bit more about what it means every year.

What is the celebration of Epiphany?

Epiphany recalls the visit of the magi to baby Jesus after his birth. It is also the feast day that celebrates the revelation of God in His Son Jesus Christ. Another name for Epiphany is Three Kings’ Day.

The Three Wise Men, Casper, Melchior, and Balthazar, were actually the first people to pay homage to the Christ child. They brought with them gifts of gold, Frankincense, and myrrh to the child Jesus. These gifts would be considered ordinary gifts to bestow upon a king.

Epiphany marks the end of the Christmas season.

The word epiphany comes from the Greek word meaning “manifestation,” which also explains how it celebrates the manifestation of Christ as God in human form.

The Traditional Date of Epiphany

Ephiphany is traditionally observed on January 6th by Roman Catholics. Since 1970, Roman Catholics in the United States have celebrated Epiphany on the first Sunday following January 1st. The celebration of the Epiphany is not a holy day of obligation.

If we consider the 12 Days of Christmas, then Epiphany would fall on the day after Twelfth Night.

Ways to Celebrate Epiphany

Bless Your Home – We’ll talk more about ways you can bless your home with chalk and holy water on Epiphany.
Send the Magi on a Journey – If you have a nativity set, you can place the three wise men somewhere in your home on Christmas Day. Each day the Wise Men can journey closer and closer to the infant Jesus until finally they reach Him on Epiphany!
Sing, “We Three Kings” – You can read with your kids the gospel account of the Three Wise Men and then sing together.
Eat Kings Cake – (Or King Cake) Many cultures bake a King’s cake on Epiphany with a baby Jesus baked and hidden somewhere inside the cake. Searching for the baby Jesus in the cake is similar to the Wise Men searching for Jesus. We really like this Kings cake recipe.

Every year at the Epiphany Mass, our parish provides blessed chalk and holy water for all parishioners to do a home blessing. This is one of my very favorite Catholic traditions and one that I really look forward to every liturgical year.

Chalking of the Doors

After Mass we come home and chalk the lintel of our front door. This year we wrote 20+C+M+B+24 above our front door. The 20 represents the first part of the year, the C, M, and B represents the names of the three Magi, and the last number represents the last number of the current year. The letters also represent “Christus mansionem benedicat,” which means “May Christ bless this house.”

Blessing of the Home

Our parish also provides us with the wording of the prayer we should say when calking our door in order to bless the house. We always have my husband, who is the head of the household chalk the door and sprinkle the holy water throughout the house. Many will say the rosary while sprinkling the holy water.