January 5, 2024
Merry Christmas! It's the last time I can say that to you for approximately 354 days - this Saturday the church calendar marks the Feast of the Epiphany , or Three Kings Day, as it is known in many places, and the official end of the Christmas season.
When I was a little girl growing up in Puerto Rico, Three Kings Day was at least as big a celebration as Christmas. Christmas Eve was candlelight and hymns, Christmas Day itself was church, and the ringing of bells, and yes, some presents, but honoring the 12 Days of Christmas was tradition, so Christmas Day was when the real celebration began and it only grew from there.
Through the 12 Days there were groups of revelers in the neighborhoods who would go from door-to-door, singing and merry-making, and if they knocked, you had to invite everyone in for food and drink - and then head out with them to the next house. Through my little girl lens, this all happened "in the middle of the night". Truthfully, it was probably more like 8 PM, but I was often already in my pajamas, and it all felt exciting and magical and daring to me, to go out singing into the dark night. Then, on the eve of Epiphany, the night before Three Kings Day, kids would pick grass from the lawn - for the camels - and put it in a box under the Christmas tree next to the creche.The next morning, the grass would be gone and there would be presents in its place. There would be a parade that day too, through the streets of the city; a final celebration of the arrival of the Christ.
Honestly, as an adult, I don't know how parents, or anyone for that matter, did it. I can't imagine having food and drink ready for neighbors to possibly drop by for 12 nights. Let alone grabbing my pajama-clad kids and joining them! But it was, as my kids say now, "back in the 1900s". A different time. One I might remember with the slightly skewed eyes of child (surely we went out one night - but it could not have been all 12?!, I'll need to ask my mom), but, nonetheless, it was a time I hold close in my memories as one of wonder and true joy in welcoming the Christ.
However you celebrate it, Happy Nearly-Epiphany. My prayer for you is for eyes to see the stars as the magi did, for hearts brave enough to step out and follow as they did, and for encounters with Christ that fill you with wonder, wherever you go.