How to Celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany

In many parts of the world, Santa's equivalent makes his rounds on January 5, not December 24. Children open gifts the next morning, when tradition says the three wise men arrived in Bethlehem and presented gold, myrrh and frankincense to Mary's baby.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Christmas Books
• Holiday Cookbooks
• Beans Or Trinkets
• Ornament Storage Boxes
• Gold And Silver Ball Candies
• Gumdrops
• Jelly Beans
• Baking Supplies

1. Have a family "undecorating" party on January 6. Spend the day taking down the tree and other holiday trimmings at a leisurely pace.

2. Prepare a quiet dinner afterward and discuss what you liked about this Christmas season and what you might want to do differently next year. (Think of it as "thinking out loud" time, though - not as a planning session.)

3. Read the story of Befana. According to legend, as the three wise men journeyed toward the manger, they came upon an old woman who was cleaning her house. They invited her to join them; she needed to continue cleaning but said she'd follow when she'd finished. But Befana never found her way to the manger, and has since been wandering the earth looking for the Christ child.

4. Let the kids decorate a "king's crown" to serve for dessert. It's a traditional Epiphany cake with a trinket baked inside it. Whoever gets the piece with the trinket reigns as king or queen of the feast and gets to order everyone else around.

5. Make this the day you exchange gifts with friends. You'll avoid another must-do event on December's calendar ' and you'll be able to put off some of your shopping until after the holidays, when you can take advantage of post-Christmas sales.

Tips & Warnings

• Known in English as the Feast of the Epiphany, this holiday is called El Día de los Reyes in Spanish.
• In several countries, including Italy and Russia, Befana climbs down chimneys on the night of January 5 to bring presents to the children. If Santa seems a bit overworked at your place, you might set aside a few gifts for Befana to deliver. It will lessen Santa's workload and give you a chance to explain why we give each other presents at Christmas in the first place.
• Children love to decorate king's crowns. Bake your own - or simply buy a cake, cut a slit, and insert a bean or a trinket (two trinkets if you want your feast to have a king and queen). Frost the cake with white icing tinted with yellow food coloring to achieve a crown-like shade of gold. Then let the kids trim it with "jewels" in the form of jelly beans, gumdrops, and gold and silver balls.
• Make sure whatever you put in your king's crown is too large to be accidentally swallowed. If you have very young children, use an easily edible trinket, such as a big strawberry.

on 11/22/2005 In Sicily, Old Befana would arrive after the children have gone to sleep on January 5th searching for the Christ Child. She would sweep their rooms and leave Oranges and Tarrone Candies (nougut and almonds flavored with citrus) in the children's shoes.

on 11/22/2005 In Mexico, young children would put their shoes outside their front door step overnight Jan. 5. This way, when the 3 Wise Men would walk by early Jan. 6 with their camels, they could leave a present in their shoes in honor of Baby Jesus.