The Epiphany and Three Wise Men

When I was a little kid, I remember a few families had the tradition of decorating their Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. It always seemed strange to me to do all that work only to take the tree down a few days later. For our family, the Christmas tree was the center of celebrating the whole Christmas season and really triggered the beginning of this festive season. We always put it up the day after Thanksgiving where it stayed no matter how much of a fireball it turned in to until New Years Day. Deep down, I wondered if the other parents were just looking for an exceptional bargain on a tree since they practically give them away on that night. I was also a bit confused about this whole 12 days of Christmas. It seemed to me that it should be 25 days of Christmas and start on December 1. It took me a while to figure all of this out. But I have to say; it took coming to Spain to fit the last pieces of the puzzle together.

I was at the mall this week getting some groceries at the big market there. As I walked in, there is a booth the mall set up to have your presents wrapped for you. I had seen it before Christmas, and though, wow nice idea and it seemed like a free service being offered. Well the wrapping center was busier than ever. Yeah I knew there was something called Three Kings Day, and I knew that children got presents then. In fact children in Spain usually only get a small present on Christmas Eve. Three Kings Day is when they really score.

As I was walking out of the grocery store, I see this HUGE line of kids. And there at the epicenter is a guy dressed up in a renaissance type costume. Red tights, square hat, little tunic. He was pretty hot, in his 20’s and had a small Van Dyke. I was a little confused because he did not resemble any Santa I had ever seen or heard about. And I have to confess, this is the first santa I have wanted to sit on in quite a while. So I ask this guy that was trying to sell cellular phones if he spoke English and what this was all about? It is one of the advantages of being a dumb American. You can pick the cutest guy around and ask him some silly question. He tells me he speaks “just a little”. No French accent, but petty funny. So he tells me that this guy in the red velvet chair is a servant of the three kings. And he is asking the children what they want the three kings to bring them. Ahhh, I get it. And I think it makes perfect sense that a king would send his servant on such an errand and that since the three kings were the ones that brought the very first Christmas presents, they would be the ones to still be stuck with the job, not some jolly fat guy living in the north pole.

The legend goes that the Three Wise Men reached the baby Jesus on January 6th, and proclaimed him a king. That became know as the day of the Epiphany, which means to reveal or to reveal that Christ was the King of Kings. Hence, Christmas is the first day of Christmas and the Epiphany is the 12th day of Christmas culminating in a very spiritual recognition of the divinity of Christ.