# 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:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**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 8, 2010, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/21 "2010-01-08T04:48:06Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > 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? Wait a minute. I missed the scenario in which Christmas is Jan 5. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2010, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/22 "2010-01-08T05:09:58Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Wait a minute. I missed the scenario in which Christmas is Jan 5. Christmas is sunset December 24 through sunset January 5. Christmas Day is December 25. Christmas is a season, 12 days long. (Please replace the partridge in the pear tree before leaving this thread.) ---
**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 8, 2010, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/23 "2010-01-08T07:37:39Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > 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. I think the Episcopal Church (USA) is the only Episcopal church that calls it that. It’s “The Feast of the Naming of Jesus” in the Anglican Church of Canada, and “The Feast of the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus” everywhere else. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2010, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/24 "2010-01-09T00:15:45Z")
Pre-Vatican II, the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus was celebrated as a second class feast on the Sunday between the Octave Day and Epiphany, or on 2 January if there was no Sunday between those two days. Post-Vatican II it has been downgraded to the lowest rank of all, an optional memorial, on 3 January. ---
**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 9, 2010, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/25 "2010-01-09T01:43:25Z")
> [@TerpBE](#): > > Traditionally this feast begins with pigs in a blanket. But the tips of the pigs are cut off… 😉 ---
**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 11, 2010, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/26 "2010-01-11T02:35:53Z")
> [@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]: … whether the divine prepuce … were deserving of simple hyperduly or of the fourth degree of latria accorded to the abscission of such divine excrescences as hair and toenails. Cunctator, and anyone else in the know, can you explain briefly what “simple hyperduly” and “the fourth degree of latria” mean, and indeed if they still apply to “the abscission of such divine excrescences as hair and toenails” (or whether they did at all, which is Stephen’s question)? And, when the Church ultimately (=now) ascribes it the level it has now (is that the right term?), what does this mean as a “rank” of observation by the faithful? Clearly it’s an “octave” day from Christmas, but does that not do more than specifying calendrical information? And what _about_ all those other excrescences, as Stephen asks? (As an attempted short answer to a poster here about the importance in general of such events and questions regarding foreskins–which is truly a most complicated case–and toenails, etc., it comes down to the mystery of Jesus as God and [lower case] man.) _(Why this is brought up by Joyce as a question that would be posed by Stephen is a different matter. For those interested, Stephen ponders it while looking down at his penis while taking a huge pee after a night of drinking.)_ Yours, Confused 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/27 "2010-01-11T03:30:27Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Cunctator, and anyone else in the know, can you explain briefly what “simple hyperduly” and “the fourth degree of latria” mean [Latria](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latria) is the term for the adoration/worship given solely to God. It differs from the [veneration](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperdulia) (i.e. **not** worship) paid to the saints, which is known as Dulia, or in the single case of the BVM as Hyperdulia, because of her special place as foremost among the saints. I haven’t read _Ulysses_, but Joyce’s reference to the “fourth degree of latria” seems to me to be an attempt to lampoon the convoluted intricacies of scholastic theology. > [@Leo Bloom](#): > > And, when the Church ultimately (=now) ascribes it the level it has now (is that the right term?), what does this mean as a “rank” of observation by the faithful? Clearly it’s an “octave” day from Christmas, but does that not do more than specifying calendrical information? All the days in the liturgical calendar are assigned a relative rank. This is done for two major reasons: - the rank of a liturgical day determines the format of the ceremonies for that day. For example, there may be extra prayers, or additional readings from scripture on a day of higher ranking; - the rankings also help to determine which liturgical day will be celebrated when two or more days coincide. Usually the day with the higher ranking will take precedence. ---
**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 11, 2010, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/28 "2010-01-11T05:06:30Z")
Thanks for the info. You explained it in much more conscise yet understandable form. Your comment re Ulysees lampooning scholasticism is on the money (you had no way of knowing, but Stephen’s brilliant mocking of it is constant in the book). Apparently the little guy was found in up to 18 places at one time or another until resting in Calcata, italy, in the 1500s, according to a book entirely devoted to the subject. That and other fun facts are in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy\_Prepuce](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Prepuce): … The rediscovery, however, led to a theological clash with the established Holy Prepuce of Calcata, which had been officially venerated [NB: “Veneration”–LB] by the Church for hundreds of years; in 1900, the Roman Catholic Church resolved the dilemma by ruling that anyone thenceforward writing or speaking of the Holy Prepuce would be excommunicated. In 1954, after much debate, the punishment was changed to the harsher degree of excommunication, vitandi (shunned); and the Second Vatican Council later removed the Day of the Holy Circumcision… So does that mean where the word “veneration” as used above is correct, or is it that long-predicted event: :eek: AN ACTUAL ERROR in Wiki? :eek: (Also, how you can have a theological clash with a prepuce is quite thought-provoking…) (Also, as usual, I gave too little credit to Joyce, and forgot a basic about Ulysses: it is set of course on June 16, 1904, not 1922, its publication date, and thus the issue that Stephen is idly contemplating was still recent, especially so given Stephen’s strict Jesuit schooling not so long before. In addition, the word prepuce is used every now and then in the book Ulysses, and is one of the zillion important themes on how Jewish Bloom is. I shall not, and no doubt will not be allowed by the TMs to hijack this thread to go there, much as I’d like to.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/29 "2010-01-11T06:38:41Z")
> [@TerpBE](#): > > Traditionally this feast begins with pigs in a blanket. [QUOTE=Serenata67] But the tips of the pigs are cut off… [/QUOTE] Given the type of ceremony the feast commemorates, wouldn’t anything having to do with pigs be inappropriate? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/30 "2010-01-11T15:28:43Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > The Feast of the Circumcision of Christ is January 1. The traditional food for the Feast is calamari. ---
**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 12, 2010, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/31 "2010-01-12T01:17:16Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > The traditional food for the Feast is calamari. 😃 Visual imagery perfect. These too: Zeppole Onion rings Bagles Angel Food cake Stuffed olives: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/cilest/9795079/](http://www.flickr.com/photos/cilest/9795079/) The tools for traditional circumcision look like so: [http://circcentral.tripod.com/sets.html](http://circcentral.tripod.com/sets.html) According to my 87-yr-old father, who attended many a circumcision in his days in the Old Country (not counting his own), an attempt at sterility was maintained by pouring brandy or strong spirits or wine on the area before the cutting began. ---
**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 12, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/32 "2010-01-12T16:45:08Z")
I note that nobody volunteered when I should take my Christmas lights down! (one of our neighbors still had theirs lit yesterday, Jan 11). ---
**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 13, 2010, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/33 "2010-01-13T04:07:59Z")
I don’t know if you should take your lights down yet. Apparently for whatever you decide to do, an excuse can be devised. I didn’t want to derail the conversation about the Feast of the Circumcision (ewww!). And I now realize that my confusion of Epiphany and Christmas was pretty ignorant. Still, part of my intended question hasn’t been addressed. Is Epiphany an especially big deal for Orthodox types? It seems to me that it is; I want to know what is the story there. ---
**Author:** ![Notassmartasithought](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c0e974/32.png) [@Notassmartasithought](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Notassmartasithought)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/34 "2010-01-13T04:19:21Z")
Two quick items. My father was on the faculty of a Lutheran college, and for years the annual faculty banquet was known as “Twelvth Night,” the last night of the Christmas season. January 5th or 6th, depending how you count. In the 80’s, the New Republic magazine used the word “epiphany” in the secular sense in two different articles in one issue–that’s pretty uncommon. I wrote them a letter to the editor commenting on it. They published the letter, surprisingly enough, not because of my cleverness, but theirs. Their headline? “Epiphenomenon.” ---
**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:** [May 10, 2015, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/35 "2015-05-10T11:55:08Z")
A zombie penis yet again interrupts the Epiphany… Among its many benefits, a foreskin can also be used to (attempt to) smuggle heroin. Cite has photo of accused man looking sad. No penis shot, however. BEIJING - Railway police revealed on Thursday they captured a man who hid a bag of heroin under his foreskin on a train from the capital to Lhasa in Tibet , The Mirror reports. The police found the man acting suspiciously during a routine patrol on the train and asked him to take a urine test, which yielded a positive result for morphine. But the police did not find any drugs in his clothes or baggage. The man later confessed to having illegal drugs on him and took out a plastic bag from under his foreskin. The police found a tenth of a gram of heroin in the bag, according to the report. > **[Around the nation: Chinese man smuggles heroin in his foreskin; divorce on...](https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1790177/around-nation-chinese-man-smuggles-heroin-his-foreskin-divorce)** > > A 12-year-old girl in Jiangyou killed herself by drinking pesticide after giving her grandmother water laced with the poison. Railway police revealed they captured a man who hid a bag of heroin under his foreskin. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2015, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/36 "2015-05-10T12:07:53Z")
A bag of heroin in the foreskin. I am reminded of **Qadgop** ’s bagel dog penis. ---
**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:** [May 11, 2015, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010/37 "2015-05-11T23:34:37Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > A zombie penis yet again interrupts the Epiphany… > > Among its many benefits, a foreskin can also be used to (attempt to) smuggle heroin. Cite has photo of accused man looking sad. No penis shot, however. > BEIJING - Railway police revealed on Thursday they captured a man who hid a bag of heroin under his foreskin on a train from the capital to Lhasa in Tibet , The Mirror reports. > > The police found the man acting suspiciously during a routine patrol on the train and asked him to take a urine test, which yielded a positive result for morphine. But the police did not find any drugs in his clothes or baggage. > > The man later confessed to having illegal drugs on him and took out a plastic bag from under his foreskin. > > The police found a tenth of a gram of heroin in the bag, according to the report. > > [Around the nation: Chinese man smuggles heroin in his foreskin; divorce on menu after wedding feast dispute | South China Morning Post](http://m.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1790177/around-nation-chinese-man-smuggles-heroin-his-foreskin-divorce) **Moderator Note** **Leo** , I don’t think this is a good reason to revive a zombie in GQ. This kind of information is better suited to MPSIMS anyway. Don’t do this again. This is closed. Colibri General Questions Moderator [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphany-why-is-it-called-that/524010.md?page=1)