Epiphany

 

This is January Sixth, the Feast of Epiphany. It marks the day that the Three Wise Men visited the Christ Child with gifts of frankincense, myrhh, and gold. It also is the final day of the Twelve Days of Christmas. 

Traditionally this is the day to remove holiday decorations from the house.  Sometimes I actually do it on the sixth. It is supposed to bring good luck. Some years, especially when I had a real tree, I would take down the decorations as soon after Christmas as possible. Now we've gone artificial, so there isn't such a rush.

This year I removed garlands, and wreaths, and all decor except Nativities and the tree, earlier and finished with the tree today. Unfortunately, it won't all be put away until tomorrow, so I am hoping that good luck is still available.

The holidays happened without any Christmas posts. I have no excuses.

This is an unusual cardboard nativity. It folds away into a box the size of a gameboard. Everything is undecorated now except for a few little snowmen. It's time to get the house back in order. Another definition of epiphany is "to recognize the true nature of something and see it for what it really is."  I seem to have a lot of epiphanies in January. I really do like these days after Christmas when I feel like there is lots of time for everything. Of course, it doesn't last, and everything gets busy again.

Happy New Year to one and to all, and may you all have epiphanies, both great and small.