Celebrating Ephiphay with the Kids

Today is the "twelfth day of Christmas."  When you sing the painfully long Christmas carol, or sit patiently as your young piano students plunk it out at lessons, you might be interested to know that those days FOLLOW Christmas Day and end on Jan. 6, called Epiphany by the early church.  Epiphany means "manifestation."  We generally recognize it as the day when the Magi beheld the Christ child with their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  A day when Jesus was revealed not just to the Jews, but to the Gentiles.   Today!

I would like to discuss this event with my kids during devotions this morning, so I did a little research.  We will begin by reading Matthew 2:1-12 and learning the significance of each gift of the Magi.


Then I found this compelling tradition of the Western Church.  They write in chalk the three initials of the Magi, C, M, and B (Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar) which also stands for Christus mansionem benedicat, translated "May Christ Bless This House."  I LOVE this idea!  I'm not sure why there is a 'K' on this door, but this picture is an example of the initials chalked onto a door of a rectory in the Czech Republic.  Today it will be our door.  I'll post a picture tomorrow. 

Ephiphany is a lovely word.  It has all this spiritual history, but it also is the word for "a sudden, intuitive perception of reality."  I love those kind of inspired moments and hope to have many in 2012.