Epiphany 2014
This is a post cobbled from bits and pieces of former years' posts.
John and I came to celebrate Epiphany late. It is not a part of our church teaching. It is a part we have happily borrowed from others and use as a way of closing Christmas with a bit more ceremony than pitching the tree to the curb as it were.
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I hope that you may not yet have put away your Nativity Set. Epiphany is the perfect day to bring the Nativity set to the table using it as the focal point.
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Dismantling Christmas means that I have stripped the tree of everything except the angel top and the lights. We will enjoy it this evening and tomorrow. I must think of a good Epiphany Supper. Last year, as I recall, I gathered the Nativity Set and plenty of candles and we ate by candlelight. I remember looking up at Nan as she ate her meal quietly and she smiled back at me. It was her first celebration of Epiphany and, quite frankly, she found it unusual and said so, but once she got into it, all was well.
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This is it for this Christmas Season. I will happily be celebrating Advent and the First Day of Christmas before year's end. I love that the years begin and end with Christmas. What a wonderful Savior to love us so that He willingly left Heaven behind for us. How we need Him! How can we not keep Christmas all year through?
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Enjoy this Day of Epiphany. Think what you might do. It's not too late! My table is set, the menu is planned, the food is waiting, my heart is full and ready.
P.S. I am thinking of all those who are still in the grip of winter weather. It's wild out there!
Good Morning, Vee from windy/cold Georgia. I see a Johnson Bros. plate near your Nativity. Wishing you a very blessed day.
ReplyDeleteIt is def. wild out there, Vee. Freezing rain/snow with temps dropping to the minuses here in upstate/western NY (heading your way). Had to reschedule all appointsment this week. ANYWAYS--what a lovely idea. I will have to remember this for next year. Blessings
ReplyDeleteIt is already here and the bitter cold returns with a vengeance tonight. Just a few days ago, it was -18F and this will be colder. Brrrrr....
DeleteIt is minus 13 here in central Illinois this morning and everything is pretty much at a standstill. This is a record for me, as I've never awakened to this kind of cold. I first checked on the plumbing, then gave the dog a stern talking to; "Go out there and hurry up!" Not even wanting to keep the back door open one more second than necessary. In the years we've lived in this area we've learned how to cope with cold. There are 8 inches of snow on the ground, and in spite of the grousing we should be thanking God for the moisture after the 2 years of drought. I hope this hard winter foretells a cooler summer. We'll see. Our biggest problem today is windy weather and low windchills. We keep our fires going! :)
ReplyDeleteWe do this at church, but not at our house. We should, it sounds so nice. Hope the elephants are fading.
ReplyDeleteThe weather here is crazy these days. Single digits overnight on Friday/Saturday, 50's on Sunday/Monday (feels like spring outside with a warm, moist wind), and dropping into the single digits again tonight. Crazy! Your negative temps and wind chills sound brutal!
ReplyDeleteI hope your Epiphany meal includes something warm!
Vee,
ReplyDeleteSince our nativity is still out, I am going to move it to our table for tonight....thank you for this post..
Love, Mona
A wonderful post Vee! It is bitter cold here today but the snow has stopped and the sun is shining.
ReplyDeleteWe celebrate Epiphany in our church but I've never celebrated it at home. I do still have my Nativity set up and will keep it up for awhile.
ReplyDeleteStay safe and warm today!
Hi Vee!
ReplyDeleteI have never celebrated Epiphany, but I think it is a wonderful thing to celebrate! I still have my Nativity up, so, on this, Three Kings Day, I will work on getting my Christmas decorations down, and maybe make some stars - to represent the three wise me!
Hugs,
Barb
It would be nice to incorporate Epiphany in our celebrations. Maybe I'll come up with a warming dinner tonight in honor of all my friends in blogland that are chilled to the bone. So many of you in a deep freeze. We are in a subtle freeze compared to you all...
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of the nativity scene to be a centerpiece. I do have one that stays out all year long.
Always a part of my church, my mother was adamant about leaving the tree and crèche up until this day. Hope you are staying warm. I am so nervous with this weather, and we have three long months to go yet. :(. xo
ReplyDeleteI don't like this weather either, Barbara. One thing is sure. We've endured before. At least it's not the -30 that lasted two or three weeks straight back in the early eighties. It was over Christmas, too, for two consecutive years. Phew. I don't want to go back to that. We were heating the house...a great big one...with two woodstoves and, believe me, we were some cold. I should write a post about it.
DeleteWow, Vee, you are a survivor! I cannot deal with the weather like I used to. I remember 20 or so years ago, we had 17 ice storms in a row. But did not miss one day and my poor mom was going out for dialysis three days a week. Miss work is what I meant. xo
DeleteI read another post today doing the same thing. I wish I had thought of it - what a great and meaningful tradition! sandie
ReplyDeleteI wasn't raised in Church with my family. "C" and I attended church together some as children. Vacation Bible School for two weeks in summer, dropped off to Church by "C"'s mom, I attended with my aunt and school friends--so when my husband and I joined a Church that did Advent, with advent wreath, Jesse Tree, Epiphany--I loved it all! I haven't had an Advent wreath in several years, but am thinking of doing it next year--and I love leaving the Creche out until Epiphany. Sadly, it stayed with most of the decorations in the closet this year. V
ReplyDeleteLovely way to end Christmas and start the new year.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely way to end the beautiful Christmas season, Vee! Thank you for your inspirational post, my friend. xo
ReplyDeleteYes...do write a post about the 1980's Big Chill.
ReplyDeleteHere in Utah the Gay Marriage act has been put on hold today until the Supreme Court can take a look-see at it in regards to State's rights. That the Supreme Court is going to take a look at that = Hell probably has frozen over and no one has checked in on Hell weather since everywhere else is so cold. Blame it all on Utah if you want.
Ephiphany Dinner...are you going to try to make a Kings Cake? So glad that I am not the only one who hangs on to Christmas until Epiphany.
We've never celebrated Epiphany. It wasn't part of our church's teachings, either. I do usually leave my tree up until after the 6th most years. Depends on when it's put up. At the very least, I keep it up until the New Year. I'm dreading taking it down, but maybe that will help warm me up. It's so very cold here our poor furnace is barely able to keep up and we have another day of this nasty cold weather forecast for tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteMy nativity set is put away but my painting of the Nativity is still up in the living room. Tomorrow it will go back into it's box until the day after Thanksgiving. I too love that the year begins and ends with Christmas - So thankful HE came. We surely need Him everyday!
ReplyDeleteWe are cold today but the temps are dropping tomorrow into the single digits with wind. Crazy, crazy weather.
Deanna
We have never celebrated Epiphany at home, but our church celebrates it. I love your way of beginning and ending the year celebrating Christmas. Someday, when we don't have to take things to the storage unit, I may adopt the way you celebrate Christ's birth.
ReplyDeleteA lovely way to end the year and start a new one ! The winter weather is nasty here today ! Thanks for sharing . Have a good week !
ReplyDeleteWe've never celebrated Epiphany in any formal way, although I acknowledge the day to myself. I love your idea of a simple celebration to mark the end of Advent-Christmas-Epiphany. I would do something tonight, but Little Miss S's mother went over to Vancouver for the day and I'm looking after her. I'll be going to the ferry to pick up Mama just after Tim gets home, so we likely won't be eating dinner at the same time (which is highly unusual). But I'd like to ponder this for next year. Or we could celebrate one day late.
ReplyDeleteI did put my nativity away but our tree is still up decorated with lights, icicles and snowflakes. We've never celebrated Epiphany either but it seems to be a special way to end the Christmas season and begin a new year. How long will you leave your tree up? This is the latest I've kept ours up and I'm still enjoying the lights. Blessings to you.
ReplyDeleteIt's coming down tomorrow and I will surely miss it. For one thing, we've had so many days of gray, rotten weather and it really has dispelled the gloom.
DeleteI have never celebrated Epiphany, I will have to look it up and see what it means. Like you, it is not a part of our church's teaching. The tree usually comes down by New Years day. But we always get a live tree and it's pretty dry by then.
ReplyDeleteWith the twinkling lights gone from inside, it does leave a house bare, doesn't it? Did you bake a King's cake for dessert?
ReplyDeleteJudith
I remember the Nuns would celebrate Epiphany, since my mom was not a Catholic is kind of faded in our house.
ReplyDeleteI just read an article today that said Lew Wallace deepened his faith in a round about way due to Epiphany. A friend of his who had served in the civil war with him (Wallace was a General) was an atheist who challenged him if Christ was really who He claimed to be. So Wallace went back to the "Epiphany" and started studying from the aspect of the Wise Men coming.
ReplyDeleteIt is a rather long story from there but it ended up with him writing Ben Hur.
I really regret our fellowship has left behind the beauty of liturgical celebrations.
The Epiphany is an important day in my Church.
ReplyDeleteIt has always been the day I take down the Christmas decorations and pack them away until Advent.
I think the way you are celebrating at home with a special meal and candlelight is a fitting way to end our very special season and I will do it next year too!
This was the day that the three wise men or Magi arrived from the East with gifts for Jesus the new King.
A beautiful image of your nativity set Vee.
We've never celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany....
ReplyDeleteI keep Father Christmas out all year....and I have a tiny, one piece Nativity that I also have sitting on the bookshelf throughout the year. I am so thankful for HIS love and HE has blessed me in more ways than I even am aware of. HE is the Light and Life Everlasting....and I love HIM dearly.
This was a touching post and I am blessed by it. xoxo
Ooops. Christmas is all put away...including the nativitiy set. Did you know that the Ukranian Christmas starts today (Epiphany) and ends on January 19th (my birthday)? We can just keep the celebrations of the season going!
ReplyDeleteOh!!! I want to do this!!! Thank you! I will need to refer back to this post but I think you have a perfect way of 'closing' out Christmas. Next year.......
ReplyDeleteMy Christmas is put up first with the nativity and it is the last part of Christmas to be boxed up until the first advent.
ReplyDeleteMy Mom went to be with her Lord and Saviour on January 6, 19 years ago. She had just cleaned up Christmas in their little home and she was ready to meet her Lord.
My mother always loved the Epiphany --her favorite Christmas card was one with the Three Kings on it. It comforted me in a way that she died on January 6th, as I felt those kings lead her into heaven that day.
ReplyDeleteI grew up celebrating Epiphany and carry on that tradition in our home. We begin the season with the first Sunday of Advent, but don't decorate until mid-December, leaving lights up and decorations around until after Epiphany. I love the way it helps us focus on Christmas and not just on the hype leading up to it.
ReplyDeleteLove what you do. Like you, our church doesn't celebrate Epiphany, and I wish it would. With us, it's far too quickly "to the curb" for Christmas. (Church *us* not us *us*.) Here, I have learned to leave my Christmas up, but I have never done a special dinner and fond farewell before. I am going to model next year after you. Oh sure, it will likely be lacking some daughters, but I think if I put some thought to it I can actually come up with something really special to do.
ReplyDeleteA day late..,. but duly inspired.
Now, let's ring in the new year.
(And I laughed right out loud at your comment because you are so right that I've never been a taupe girl. There might even be a post about that now that you tossed it out there...)
Hi Vee,
ReplyDeleteThis is a lovely post, my friend. Our church doesn't celebrate Epiphany either, but we always keep our things up until then. My parents and sister go to the Moravian Church, and they hang their electric Moravian stars on the first Sunday of Advent and leave them up until Epiphany. I love that.
I'm a day late commenting on this post, so I hope you see it. I'm behind on ALL my visiting because hubby was home for such a long Christmas vacation. I loved having him here, though. :) Is this an arctic blast, or what?! It's six degrees here in N.C. right now; I thought that was cold until I saw your -18. Yikes!! I hope you and John continue to stay warm and safe, Vee.
Big Hugs to You,
Denise at Forest Manor
The Amish also celebrate this day with the children off from school and businesses closed. I'm going to do this next year, I like the idea of beginning and ending the year this way.
ReplyDelete