40 Fun Facts About Epiphany

The Bible never says how many Magi visited Jesus, so what gave rise to the tradition of three?

The number of gifts fixed the count at three in the West, but Syriac Christians often picture a far larger party of twelve visitors.

According to the Gospel account read at Epiphany, the Magi found the child Jesus in what kind of place?

A house is where the visitors enter in the Gospel text; the manger of nativity scenes belongs to the shepherds' story in Luke.

Which gift of the Magi, a resin used in ancient embalming, is taken as a sign of Jesus's death?

Myrrh returns at the end of the story: John's Gospel says a mixture of it with aloes was brought to wrap the body of Jesus for burial.

In Italian folklore, which soot-covered figure flies on a broomstick to bring children presents on Epiphany Eve?

La Befana comes down the chimney, which explains the soot, and her name is popularly said to be a worn-down form of Epifania.

Which Shakespeare comedy takes its title from the eve of Epiphany, the close of the Christmas season?

Twelfth Night was probably written as an entertainment for that very evening, and its revels are opposed by the killjoy steward Malvolio.

Giotto painted the Magi's star as which returning visitor to the sky, later met by a spacecraft named for him?

Halley's Comet blazed over Italy in 1301, and Giotto's fresco in the Scrovegni Chapel gives the Christmas star a long fiery tail.

In Mexico, whoever finds the baby figurine in the Epiphany rosca de reyes must later supply which food?

Tamales are served on February 2, the day Mexican families dress a figure of the infant Jesus and take it to church to be blessed.

Which German city's cathedral was built around a gilded shrine said to contain the bones of the three Magi?

Cologne began its present cathedral in 1248 to shelter the relics, and the shrine ranks among the largest reliquaries in the Western world.

Which ruler asked the Magi to report back to him once they had found the newborn child in Judea?

King Herod claimed he wanted to worship the child too, but when the visitors slipped away he ordered the killing of the town's infant boys.

At a Greek Orthodox Epiphany blessing of the sea, what does the priest throw in for swimmers to retrieve?

A cross is cast into the water to recall the baptism of Jesus, and the swimmer who brings it back to the priest receives a special blessing.

On which fixed date do Western churches traditionally keep Epiphany, though many now move it to a Sunday?

January 6 on the old Julian calendar now falls thirteen days later, which is why many Orthodox churches keep the feast on January 19.

Which New Testament book is the only one to tell the story of the Magi following a star?

Matthew tells the birth story from Joseph's side and has no shepherds, while Luke has the shepherds and the manger but no visitors from afar.

How were the Magi warned not to go back to the king in Jerusalem after visiting the child Jesus?

In a dream the visitors were told to stay away, so they left by another road, and the same chapter has Joseph guided the same way three times.

After asking for the newborn king in Jerusalem, the Magi were sent to which town named by the prophet Micah?

Bethlehem was King David's home town, which is why the scribes consulted in Jerusalem expected a future ruler of Israel to come from there.

Eastern Orthodox churches use Epiphany to celebrate the baptism of Jesus by John in which river?

The Jordan even names the feast in Bulgaria, where the day is known as Yordanovden, and pilgrims gather on its east bank for the feast each year.

Epiphany also recalls Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding in which village in Galilee?

Cana is where John's Gospel places the first miracle of Jesus, which the Western feast remembers alongside the Magi and the baptism.

Which blessed item do many Catholics use at Epiphany to write the initials C, M and B above their front doors?

Chalk marks stand for the traditional names of the Magi and for a short Latin prayer, and they are framed by the digits of the new year.

Which name does Western tradition give to one of the Magi, alongside Caspar and Melchior?

Balthazar and his companions are never named in the Bible, and other churches use quite different names: Syrian Christians call one of them Larvandad.

At the baptism of Jesus, recalled at Epiphany, the Holy Spirit descended in the form of which bird?

A dove descends as a voice speaks from heaven, a scene Orthodox teaching counts as one of only two where all three persons of the Trinity appear together.

What color vestments does a Catholic priest wear at Epiphany Mass, as throughout the Christmas and Easter seasons?

White is kept for feasts of the Lord and of saints who were not martyrs, while red is worn for martyrs, Pentecost and Good Friday.

In New Orleans, Epiphany opens the Carnival season of king cakes and parades, which ends on which day?

Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday, and whoever finds the tiny plastic baby hidden in a king cake is expected to buy the next one.

In France, whoever finds the charm hidden in an Epiphany galette des rois gets to wear what?

A paper crown is sold with the cake, and to keep the sharing fair the youngest child hides under the table and calls out who gets each slice.

In Puerto Rico, what do children leave in a box under the bed on Epiphany Eve for the Three Kings' animals?

Fresh grass is left for the Kings' camels or horses, depending on the household, and Puerto Rican carvers often show the Magi arriving on horseback.

What does Italy's Epiphany gift-bringer traditionally leave in the stockings of children who have behaved badly?

Coal is the classic penalty, though in poorer parts of rural Sicily a stick was once left instead, and well-behaved children get toys and sweets.

In Ireland, Epiphany is nicknamed Little Christmas, a day of rest traditionally given to whom?

Women handed the cooking and cleaning to the men for the day, a custom kept up most strongly in Cork and Kerry as an evening out with friends.

In Germany and Austria, children dressed as the Magi go from door to door at Epiphany doing what for charity?

Singing songs earns donations for children in poorer countries, and the young visitors carry a star on a pole as they go.

In which African country is Epiphany kept as Timkat, with models of the Ark of the Covenant carried in procession?

Ethiopia keeps a replica of the Ark, called a tabot, on every church altar, and at Timkat a priest carries it wrapped in rich cloth on his head.

In Russia, where do many Orthodox believers take a ritual plunge on the midwinter feast of Epiphany?

An ice hole is cut in a frozen lake or river, and some Russians hold that all water turns holy that day, even what runs from the kitchen tap.

Which Florida city, nicknamed Epiphany City, is known for a Greek Orthodox dive by teenage boys each year?

Tarpon Springs owes its Greek community to sponge divers recruited from Greece from 1905, after which sponging became the town's main business.

Outside church, the word epiphany is now most often used for which kind of everyday experience?

A sudden realization is the modern sense, the kind credited to Archimedes in his bath and to Newton watching an apple fall.

The name Epiphany comes from a Greek word, once used for the dawn, that carries which meaning?

Appearance is the root sense, and ancient Greeks used the word above all for a god showing himself to a worshipper.

At Epiphany the Magi stand for the Gentiles, a word for people who are not what?

Jewish is the contrast the word draws: the Magi were foreigners, so their visit became a sign that the child had come for every nation.

By what Greek name do Eastern Orthodox Christians usually call their great feast of the baptism of Jesus?

Theophany services include the Great Blessing of Waters, performed once indoors on the eve and again outdoors beside a river, lake or sea.

Which February 2 feast, counted as the fortieth day of Christmas, traditionally closes the Epiphany season?

Candlemas recalls the infant Jesus being presented in the Temple, and worshippers bring candles to church to be blessed for the year ahead.

The word Magi comes from the title of priests in an ancient Persian religion founded by which prophet?

Zoroaster's priests were famed as stargazers, and their Greek name, magos, is also the root of the English word magic.

Which medieval traveler claimed to have been shown the tombs of the three Magi at Saveh in Persia?

Marco Polo wrote that the three lay side by side in large and beautiful monuments, their bodies whole, with hair and beards intact.

Which Old Testament prophet's vision of kings bringing tribute helped recast the Magi as royalty?

Isaiah chapter 60 is the first reading at Epiphany Mass, and by about the year 500 the visitors were widely pictured as kings.

Which country's ancient national church celebrates the birth of Jesus together with Epiphany, with no December feast?

Armenia's church keeps the older custom of a single feast for the birth and the baptism, and its liturgy that day ends with a blessing of water.

Which composer's Christmas Oratorio ends with a sixth cantata written for the feast of Epiphany?

Bach built the oratorio from six cantatas for six services of the Christmas season of 1734, reusing music from his earlier secular works.

Relics said to be the Magi's bones lay in which Italian city until an emperor took them to Germany in 1164?

Milan lost them when Frederick Barbarossa removed the relics from the church of Sant'Eustorgio and gave them to his chancellor, Archbishop Rainald of Dassel.