And once again it’s a new year. I could talk about something along the lines of it being New Year’s, however, I did that last year. Instead let me tell you all about the much more existing holiday that comes right after the New Year which would be Epiphany otherwise known as Kings Day or the 12th day of Christmas.
As I’ve mentioned before my transplanted hispanic family from the south celebrates Christmas from start to finish. Meaning that starting on Christmas day we celebrate the 12 days of Christmas until January 6th when we celebrate the Epiphany.
Epiphany is when the three kings, or three wisemen, arrive to see baby Jesus and present him with the gifts.
Growing up this meant that my family spent those 12 days playing games and enjoying a much needed break after the rush of getting everything ready for Christmas Eve services, and some years Christmas Day services, in addition to all of the extra things at the church leading up to Christmas.
In my Belizean father’s traditions Christmas is when the big Christmas dinner is had and stockings appear, however, presents don’t appear until Epiphany when the three kings bring them.
When my older sister and I were children we would often get some presents on Christmas Day and the rest on Epiphany. Or in years where our parents worked a lot on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day nearly everything would be saved for Epiphany.
For us this was also a day for spiced cookies in the shape of a star, to represent the star that guided the Three Kings to Bethlehem. We didn’t make them every year and often we would make a pan of ginger bread instead. However, I remember these cookies being a type of crisp ginger cookie.
Now that we’re adults and our family is spread out we don’t celebrate in the same way as when we were children. However, we do still celebrate the 12 days of Christmas and always make sure to do something individually while wishing one another a Happy Epiphany.
