# Epiphany. Why is it called that? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 7, 2010, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010 "2010-01-07T07:00:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/1 "2010-01-07T07:00:12Z")
So I guess today was the Feast of (the?) Epiphany. If you don’t already know, that is like Christmas for Eastern Orthodox types. You know, the Greek Orthodox, the Russian Orthodox, maybe there are other Orthodox groups out there, I can’t say I know much about it at all 🙂 My question is: Why is it called ‘Epiphany’? That word seems already taken in my mind, but that’s probably just the ignorance talking. Why not just Christmas? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/2 "2010-01-07T07:10:22Z")
“Epiphany” means “appearance” or “manifestation”, and the Epiphany is the appearance of Jesus to the world, and, assuming you’re Christian, the day that God made Himself manifest as Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/3 "2010-01-07T07:17:04Z")
I always wondered about that, and then one day I had this sudden realization… ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/4 "2010-01-07T07:32:12Z")
Yes but other Christians apart from the Orthodox celebrate Epiphany too. For Catholics and Protestants it is supposedly the anniversary of the date that the Three Magi arrived in Bethlehem, some time after Jesus’s birth. Why does that count as “the appearance of Jesus to the world”? On the one hand, He was still a small baby; on the other, quite lot of other people must have seen him by then, at the very least Mary, Joseph, and a bunch of shepherds (assuming we accept the Gospels as true, of course ;)). According to [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany_%28holiday%29), the Orthodox churches hold that Epiphany is the anniversary of the date that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, and thus began his mission. That seems to make more sense really. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/5 "2010-01-07T07:49:16Z")
Because it would sound creepy to be celebrating the circumcision of Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/6 "2010-01-07T07:59:26Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Because it would sound creepy to be celebrating the circumcision of Jesus. The Feast of the Circumcision of Christ is January 1. ---
**Author:** ![Wallet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e99b99/32.png) [@Wallet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallet)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/7 "2010-01-07T08:05:48Z")
**Captain Amazing** wrote: > [@](#): > > The Feast of the Circumcision of Christ is January 1. I was always taught this, but was recently told that the Church no longer uses this title for its Holy Day of Obligation, and instead it’s a day to celebrate Mary. Is this true? Is it no longer the Feast of the Circumcision?\*\*\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/8 "2010-01-07T09:27:23Z")
The Russian Orthodox Church _does_ celebrate Christmas, and it does not call it epiphany but ‘birth’ (_Rozhdestvo_). They do not celebrate it on the 25th of December but rather in the first week of January but that is not because they celebrate a different episode in Christ’s life than his birth. Instead, it is because the Orthodox calendar does not coincide with the Western one, which means they’re 2 weeks behind - something that was true in Russia as a whole until 1917, as a result of which the October Revolution took place in November. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/9 "2010-01-07T13:45:48Z")
> [@Wallet](#): > > **Captain Amazing** wrote: > > I was always taught this, but was recently told that the Church no longer uses this title for its Holy Day of Obligation, and instead it’s a day to celebrate Mary. > > Is this true? Is it no longer the Feast of the Circumcision?\*\*\*\* I’m 39. As far back as I can remember (and I went to Catholic school for elementary), January 1 was the Solemnity of Mary. I probably had read about it once being the Feast of the Circumcision, but I cannot ever remember it being referred to that way as if it still were such. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/10 "2010-01-07T14:34:36Z")
It also the day after the “Twelve Days of Christmas.” You celebrated for 12 days, and went to church on the 13th day. The Epiphany used to be a “bigger deal” than Christmas, so from Christmas to the Epiphany, you would celebrate. It’s kind of like continuing advent for an extra 12 days. It may be helpful to know that in the Eastern Churches, it’s referred to as Theophany, which has a much more literal translation: “appearance of God.” ---
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/11 "2010-01-07T14:41:38Z")
The Feast of the Epiphany is 6th January. Christmas as celebrated by Orthodox churches, Copts and Rastafarians is 7th January, and is different to the other Christmas because of the difference between the Gregorian and Julian calendars. Advent is a season of fasting and preparation, so celebrating from Christmas to Epiphany would be in no way a continuation of it. I’m on my way to the kitchen now to make some traditional Russian Christmas sauce to go with our roast pork! ---
**Author:** ![TerpBE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc8723/32.png) [@TerpBE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TerpBE)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/12 "2010-01-07T18:12:43Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > The Feast of the Circumcision of Christ is January 1. Traditionally this feast begins with pigs in a blanket. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/13 "2010-01-07T20:30:48Z")
> [@TerpBE](#): > > Traditionally this feast begins with pigs in a blanket. Do I really want to know how it ends? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/14 "2010-01-07T21:49:56Z")
> [@Wallet](#): > > I was always taught this, but was recently told that the Church no longer uses this title for its Holy Day of Obligation, and instead it’s a day to celebrate Mary. > > Is this true? Is it no longer the Feast of the Circumcision?\*\*\*\* The sequence is: - prior to the 1962 revision of the liturgical calendar, 1 January was celebrated as the feast of the Circumcision, with a secondary designation as the Octave Day of Christmas; - after the 1962 revision the designation became solely that of the Octave Day of Christmas; - with the post Vatican II calendar changes, the feast of the Maternity of Our Lady (i.e. that of [Theotokos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theotokos), formerly celebrated on 11 October) was switched to 1 January, as the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/15 "2010-01-07T22:08:10Z")
Okay, I have a much more practical question. I left my Christmas light up all through Advent and Christmas (that is, through January 5). Feast of the Epiphany: should I have turned on the lights or no? On the one hand, Christmas is over, so I left the lights off and will be taking them down. On the other hand, the Epiphany is symbolized by the Star that the Wise Men followed, it would seem appropriate to have the lights up for the Feast (but not the whole season). What say you liturgical Dopers? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/16 "2010-01-07T22:11:27Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > - with the post Vatican II calendar changes, the feast of the Maternity of Our Lady (i.e. that of [Theotokos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theotokos), formerly celebrated on 11 October) was switched to 1 January, as the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. And it’s still the Feast of the Circumcision in the Eastern Orthodox and the Church of England. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/17 "2010-01-07T22:42:41Z")
> [@ToeJam](#): > > Do I really want to know how it ends? :eek: Skinless franks.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/18 "2010-01-07T23:49:28Z")
The piscopal Church makes January 1 the Feast of the Holy Name (cf. the passage in Matthew where Joseph and Mary have their baby boy circumcised on the eighth day and give him the name Jesus at that time. Same thing, but shifting the focus from the minor surgery to its symbolic value in Judaism. As for Epiphany, I believe that its former name as “Old Christmas” and the equivalence of the date with the Orthodox date for Christmas derives from the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in place of the Julian. But the significance is the revealing of Jesus _to all nations_ (as symbolized by the Magi, who arrived then), or at least that’s what it’s taken to commemorate), not merely to the Jews. The Sundays after Epiphany reflect this theme, starting with Jesus’s baptism by John the Baptist and ending with the Transfiguration. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/19 "2010-01-08T02:45:15Z")
A crisis of liturgy regarding the actual removed foreskin of Jesus, at least in 1921, was described in _Ulysses_ as so: To Stephen [Daedalus]: the problem of the sacerdotal integrity of Jesus circumcised (1st January, holiday of obligation to hear mass and abstain from unnecessary servile work) and the problem as to whether the divine prepuce, the carnal bridal ring of the holy Roman catholic apostolic church, conserved in Calcata, were deserving of simple hyperduly or of the fourth degree of latria accorded to the abscission of such divine excrescences as hair and toenails. We got into a little subject drift here, it seems, from Epiphany, but what the hell.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/20 "2010-01-08T03:47:00Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > A crisis of liturgy regarding the actual removed foreskin of Jesus, at least in 1921, was described in _Ulysses_ as so: > > To Stephen [Daedalus]: the problem of the sacerdotal integrity of Jesus circumcised (1st January, holiday of obligation to hear mass and abstain from unnecessary servile work) and the problem as to whether the divine prepuce, the carnal bridal ring of the holy Roman catholic apostolic church, conserved in Calcata, were deserving of simple hyperduly or of the fourth degree of latria accorded to the abscission of such divine excrescences as hair and toenails. > > We got into a little subject drift here, it seems, from Epiphany, but what the hell.🙂 That is a really exquisite juxtaposition of username and post content! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010.md?page=2)