2018 Cabin News
6 years ago
Today is Epiphany, the 12th day of Christmas. It celebrates the day when the three Magi visited Jesus and gave him the gifts of frankincense, myrrh, and gold.
Christmas Eve begins the 12 days of Christmas, so January 5th, the eve of Epiphany, is called Twelfth Night. William Shakespeare wrote a play for the festivities in 1602, which is why it is called Twelfth Night.
James Joyce's famous short story "The Dead" is set at a party for the Feast of the Epiphany. The story ends: "His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
4 Comments:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Supposedly those were their names. I think they were astrologers. They came from the East. They followed the star. I don't know what they looked like but they most certainly had beards. And I read one was old, one was young and one was middle aged. I have no idea if that is true, but, it's somehow funny. I don't know why. They did bring gifts. There is a funny tradition in Spain and in New Orleans that on the epiphany you bake a cake in the shape of a ring and hide a bean in it and if you get the bean you are king for the day. In New Orleans they have little tiny plastic babies that come with the cake. They are called King Cakes. They sell them from now until Mardi Gras. I never heard of this. I want to see a picture of one, if I find it I will post it. Yes...I will post it.