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According to www.whychristmas.com and other sites, January 6 is called Epiphany. This is their historical reason:
“Epiphany is celebrated 12 days after Christmas on 6th January (or January 19th for some Orthodox Church who have Christmas on 7th January) and is the time when Christians remember the Wise Men (also sometimes called the Three Kings) who visited Jesus.
Epiphany is also when some Churches remember when Jesus was Baptised, when he was about 30, and started to teach people about God. Epiphany means ‘revelation’ and both the visit of the Wise Men and his Baptism are important times when Jesus was ‘revealed’ to be very important.”
In many Orthodox and Eastern churches, it is a feast day, ending the twelve days of Christmas. You may recall the carol in which partrdges, turtle doves, and other such things were gifts for the twelve days of Christmas. Tradition says it was a song to teach children about the church, some have debunked this theory. However, there were traditionally twelve days of Christmastide following the forty days of Advent.
One feature this year is that Putin has called for a cease fire on this day in his assault on Ukraine.
Traditionally, this is the date when the Three Wisemen, the Magi, visited Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus and proclaimed the child the Messiah, or the theophany–the manifestation of God in human form. The church term is Incarnation. While the kings took a while to arrive, Matthew says they visited the house, not the stable. However, most nativity scenes (I own over a hundred of them) include the wise men in the stable gathering, showing that Jesus was born for the wealthy and for the poor shepherds. We also assume there were three because they brought three gifts of value: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
I invite you to visit the site www.whychristmas.com to see how this is celebrated around the world. This is what it says about New Orleans: “In New Orleans, Louisiana, in the USA, on Epiphany/King’s Day, the Christmas Tree is either take down or the ornaments are replaced with Purple, Gold and Green ones and it’s then called a ‘Mardi Gras Tree’! People also like to eat ‘King Cake’ (a cinnamon pastry with sugar on the top and sometimes filled with cream cheese or jelly/jam). The King Cake will have a little baby plastic doll inside (which represents Jesus); whoever gets the piece with the baby has to supply the next King Cake!”
To be very real, yes, our decorations are still up, and no, I am not planning to take them down today. Too many other things to do, but I just might make a King Cake. Here’s the recipe from allrecipes.com. Happy Kings’ Day.
Pastry:
- 1 cup milk
- ¼ cup butter
- ⅔ cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
- ½ cup white sugar, divided
- 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 5 ½ cups all-purpose flour
Filling:
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- ⅔ cup chopped pecans
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup raisins
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ½ cup melted butter
Glaze:
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 plastic baby doll
Directions
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Make pastry: Scald milk over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature.
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Stir together warm water, 1 tablespoon white sugar, and yeast in a large bowl. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
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Add cooled milk mixture to yeast mixture and whisk in eggs. Stir in remaining white sugar, salt, and nutmeg. Beat flour, 1 cup at a time, into milk/egg mixture. Once dough comes together, turn it onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes.
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Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl; turn to coat. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap; let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 2 hours. When risen, punch down and divide dough in half.
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Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease 2 cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
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Make filling: Combine brown sugar, pecans, flour, raisins, and cinnamon in a bowl. Pour melted butter on top and mix until crumbly.
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Roll each piece of dough into a 10×16-inch rectangle. Sprinkle filling evenly over dough and roll up tightly like a jelly roll, beginning at a wide side. Bring the ends of each roll together to form 2 oval-shaped rings.
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Place each ring on a prepared cookie sheet. With scissors, make cuts 1/3 of the way through the rings at 1-inch intervals. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
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Bake in the preheated oven until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Check often for doneness so the ring doesn’t overbake.
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Make glaze: Stir together confectioners’ sugar and water in a bowl until smooth.
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Push doll into bottom of one warm cake. Drizzle glaze over both warm cakes.
If desired, decorate with colored sugars: gold, purple, and greenJANN ELAINE ELEODINMUO
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