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6 gennaio 2015, martedi

Il sesto giorno dell'anno

The Epiphany, this is the church calendar.

The Epiphany is traditionally celebrated the 12th day after Christmas, January 6th. In the dioceses of the United States this feast has been moved the Sunday between January 2nd and January 8th.

The Epiphany takes its name from the Greek Ἐπιφάνεια, which denotes the visit of god to earth. The first idea of the feast is the manifestation of Christ as the Son of God. The feast unites three events in the life of Christ when His divinity, as it were, shines through His humanity: the adoration of the Magi; the baptism of Christ in the Jordan; and the first miracle at the wedding feast of Cana. The Gospels of the baptism and the marriage at Cana are read on the Octave Day and the Second Sunday after Epiphany, and later Sunday masses in the Epiphany season continue to show the divine power of our Lord in some of His most striking miracles.

In England, the celebration of the Night before Epiphany is known as Twelfth Night, and was a traditional time for mumming and the wassail. The yule log was left burning until this day, and the charcoal left was kept until the next Christmas to kindle next year's yule log, as well as to protect the house from fire and lightning.