A couple of days ago, our family celebrated for the first time the Feast of the Epiphany. As a Catholic, I am all for rituals and traditions, so this year, I want to start adding new family memories around the liturgical year, (outside the major ones like Christmas, Lent, and Easter) to enrich not only our faith but also our family life.
As I mentioned above, we never celebrated before the feast of the Epiphany. Is known that countries like Spain and Italy observe King's Day just as the West celebrates Christmas; with a special family meal and exchange of the gifts, but as I began to explore farther on this feast I noticed how the church around the world holds many different sets of gestures and customs rich in symbolism worth to try here at home.
To begin, the feast of the Epiphany or King's day honors the adoration of the three Magi to baby Jesus. This feast carries deep symbolism behind the homage of the foreign wise men to the Jewish child, it represents essentially the first manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. This manifestation was exalted solemnly by the Magi with the treasures they gift Him; with Gold, to honor His kingship; with Frankincense to honor His priesthood and Myrrh to honor His sacrifice. As I said, if you think about it, these symbols are very meaningful in terms of faith, it pretty much points us to not just follow Jesus, but to adore Him. You see? these men from afar recognized His divinity without being foretold of the prophecies or formed previously in the faith per say, they recognized the Divine presence of Jesus and honored him accordingly. With this in mind, let us now understand the many traditions around this feast. I am super excited to do this every year with my kids!
The first custom we adopted was the Spanish tradition of the hay in the shoes! I have a dear friend who lived in Spain for years, and told me how the little kids the night of the 5th place hay inside their shoes for the kings' camels to eat; in exchange, the kings leave a little present as a token of appreciation. The gifts can be chocolate gold coins, a saint medal, or a fruit.
The following day, on the feast day January 6th, we chalked our entrance door and pray the Epiphany house blessing to receive the new year. I did the chalking of the entrance door back on 2015 after I saw it on Pinterest, but failed on doing it the following years. So this time we are renewing our inscription on the wall with the customary format:
As I mentioned above, we never celebrated before the feast of the Epiphany. Is known that countries like Spain and Italy observe King's Day just as the West celebrates Christmas; with a special family meal and exchange of the gifts, but as I began to explore farther on this feast I noticed how the church around the world holds many different sets of gestures and customs rich in symbolism worth to try here at home.
To begin, the feast of the Epiphany or King's day honors the adoration of the three Magi to baby Jesus. This feast carries deep symbolism behind the homage of the foreign wise men to the Jewish child, it represents essentially the first manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. This manifestation was exalted solemnly by the Magi with the treasures they gift Him; with Gold, to honor His kingship; with Frankincense to honor His priesthood and Myrrh to honor His sacrifice. As I said, if you think about it, these symbols are very meaningful in terms of faith, it pretty much points us to not just follow Jesus, but to adore Him. You see? these men from afar recognized His divinity without being foretold of the prophecies or formed previously in the faith per say, they recognized the Divine presence of Jesus and honored him accordingly. With this in mind, let us now understand the many traditions around this feast. I am super excited to do this every year with my kids!
The first custom we adopted was the Spanish tradition of the hay in the shoes! I have a dear friend who lived in Spain for years, and told me how the little kids the night of the 5th place hay inside their shoes for the kings' camels to eat; in exchange, the kings leave a little present as a token of appreciation. The gifts can be chocolate gold coins, a saint medal, or a fruit.
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| Lollipop watches as we explain the hay is for the camels to eat! |
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| Everyone's shoes ready for the Kings' arrival |
The following day, on the feast day January 6th, we chalked our entrance door and pray the Epiphany house blessing to receive the new year. I did the chalking of the entrance door back on 2015 after I saw it on Pinterest, but failed on doing it the following years. So this time we are renewing our inscription on the wall with the customary format:
+20 C M B 18+
• The initials C M B stand for the traditional names of the three Magi: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar.
or
• They also abbreviate the Latin words Christus mansionem benedicat, “May Christ bless the house.”
Following the chalking of the door, we prayed together at the entrance of the house a beautiful Epiphany prayer I found online HERE, asking God to bless our home, us and everyone who visits.
There are many more rituals you can incorporate to celebrate this feast, such as:
Finally, there is the special holiday meal, it can be a custom local dish, ham, or an Eastern food like lasagna or chicken marsala. We decided to go this time for our signature holiday ham dinner.
Our holiday ham dinner is served at our house for Christmas, and for Easter. It is fairly easy (perfect for me 😏) and delicious! I personally love to make it! The main course is glazed ham with pineapple and cherries accompanied white rice, (it never fails in a Colombian family dinner) Russian potato salad, devil eggs, and fried plantains. This year, I was lucky to count with the help of my 3 oldest children; Miss Poppins, popsicle, and Agent 007. Each one helped me to prepare a side, while I cooked the ham.
At the end, is all about family and memories! We surely had tons of fun. The beauty of traditions and the holiday season is the richness of the symbols we create to come closer to the mysteries of the faith, and the treasure that is to pass it to the next generation.
What traditions are meaningful to you? which ones would you like to incorporate next year?
I would love to hear your comments! Thanks for reading.
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| Miss Poppins chalking the door for 2018! |
Following the chalking of the door, we prayed together at the entrance of the house a beautiful Epiphany prayer I found online HERE, asking God to bless our home, us and everyone who visits.
There are many more rituals you can incorporate to celebrate this feast, such as:
- Bake a "King's cake" or "Roscon de Reyes" which is basically a bundt cake, where you place several surprises inside the dough, like candy jewels, a porcelain figure of a baby wrapped in foil, and a dry bean. This Spanish tradition, says that whoever finds the baby will have good luck and will be the king of the party, but if you find the bean you will be poor! hehehe watch out for the bean!😏
- Many other baked goods like star or crown cookies wrapped in golden paper and ribbons are to be exchanged after the holiday meal.
- Others bake a birthday cake for baby Jesus!
- Is traditional in many homes to move the kings of their nativity scene around the home to finally arrive at the manger on January 6th.
Finally, there is the special holiday meal, it can be a custom local dish, ham, or an Eastern food like lasagna or chicken marsala. We decided to go this time for our signature holiday ham dinner.
Our holiday ham dinner is served at our house for Christmas, and for Easter. It is fairly easy (perfect for me 😏) and delicious! I personally love to make it! The main course is glazed ham with pineapple and cherries accompanied white rice, (it never fails in a Colombian family dinner) Russian potato salad, devil eggs, and fried plantains. This year, I was lucky to count with the help of my 3 oldest children; Miss Poppins, popsicle, and Agent 007. Each one helped me to prepare a side, while I cooked the ham.
Find out how we prepared it HERE.
What traditions are meaningful to you? which ones would you like to incorporate next year?
I would love to hear your comments! Thanks for reading.
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