Do Christians still celibrate Epiphany ? And what's the story of the three Magi or the three kings, please ?

Why didn't any christian answered this question ?
Should we wait for Jeff again ? :rolleyes:

i know all the story of the epiphany but i don't want another anti-christ thread.
if you want to ask anything, you can pm me.

Why do you consider this thread and others about christianity as anti-christ ? I was just asking a question for curiousity. And i have no problem in pming you but i would prefer to hear other christians views and everytime there is a new piece of information, there might be another question regarding it. Anyway minerva if you consider questions about christianity are offensive I suggest you ( christians ) should write a petition for the Mods and administrators that the ' other religions sabla' should be removed and we only keep the Islamic sabla since all questions about Islam are willingly answered and there would be no use of the ' other religions sabla'.

ok, so if i answer your question as best i can, will you promise not to hurl any insults?

look at all the stuff in the other religions sabla? shall i start pasting the alcohol/drugs/virgin/son/god not god/3+1 comments. frankly enough i don't want myself to fall in any trap cos i'm too tired to discuss and argue, i can satisfy your curiosity though.

ok, so if i answer your question as best i can, will you promise not to hurl any insults?

I promise :cute: .. I'll consider your pm explanation as an answer. Thanks :)
Though i have some questions which i'll refrain asking them. I read this word Epiphamy in a story I was reading and got curious to know about it. That's why I asked this question ( No aim for offence ) . Thanks again for the answer.

I promise :cute: .. I'll consider your pm explanation as an answer. Thanks :)
Though i have some questions which i'll refrain asking them. I read this word Epiphamy in a story I was reading and got curious to know about it. That's why I asked this question ( No aim for offence ) . Thanks again for the answer.
you can wait for jeff. he's the pope's son, he'll tell you better.

I never even heard about it...Though I recall the literal meaning of epiphany to be a moment of intense emotion.
Would be interesting to know.
Isn't the Three Kings story about the Three Kings who brought Jesus gifts when he was born? I forgot, sorry :shy:

It was discussed in another thread some time ago. Maybe type in Three Wise Kings and see what you get.

Here: http://www.englishsabla.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51119&highlight=wise+kings

Yeah this issue has been discussed before.

Locked :p

Here: http://www.englishsabla.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51119&highlight=wise+kings

Thanks marianna. So it's the same of Hispanic. Do christians still celibrate it in the 6th of January or not ? and if yes, how do they celibrate it ? I mean what do they do at that date ?

Only sure about how the Hispanics celebrate it and my family attends Mass in recognition. I have known about this since I was like in diapers. It is discussed in American masses here also but as far as personal celebrations they don't do the camel thing like we do.

Only sure about how the Hispanics celebrate it and my family attends Mass in recognition. I have known about this since I was like in diapers. It is discussed in American masses here also but as far as personal celebrations they don't do the camel thing like we do.
we go to mass on that day.

Will be going to Mass this weekend for Palm Sunday. Minerva, do you guys do the camel thing also in regards to presents under the bed?

no we don't do the camel thing. in the olden times (before santa came along) we used to give presents on that day. in italy the 'befana' (old lady) comes and gives presents to the good children. the naughty ones she brings them a piece of coal :hyper:

That is cool. I know Santa is suppose to bring coal for bad kids. In Puerto Rico the presents usually are reserved for Jan. 6th because Christmas is set aside to reflect but we still get some but the cool stuff came around the 6th.

i gave my older kid a coal from the barbeque a couple of christmases ago. she cried her eyes out. :D evil mum.

OH man! Meanie! :)

OH man! Meanie! :)
yeps...she didn't fight with her sister for a whole week, so it worked a bit :hyper:

Epiphany is a Holy Day of Obligation in the Roman Catholic Church. That means that all Catholics are required to attend Mass on that day.

BUT...

The bishops of individual countries can petition Rome to dispense Catholics there from the requirement of attending Mass on certain days for serious reasons. And the Pope usually grants the requested dispensations.

In the United States, the American bishops long, long ago--in the 1800s as a matter of fact--asked Pope Leo XIII to dispense Americans from four Holy Days of Obligation: St. Joseph's Day, Sts. Peter and Paul Day, Corpus Christi, and Epiphany.

St. Joseph and Sts. Peter and Paul remain on the calendar on their proper dates, but Catholics don't HAVE to go to Mass on those days in the US. But Corpus Christi and Epiphany were considered important enough that they moved them to the nearest Sunday.

So all American Catholics who go to Mass on Sunday celebrate Epiphany in the sense that they have a Mass devoted to it.

This drives my wife and some other Catholics I know bananas. We have a famous Christmas carol about "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and it seems to them bizarre to move the date from the Twelfth Day of Christmas to some other date. Luckily, my church uses the old Liturgy and we celebrate Epiphany on January 6. So my wife can sleep at night! :p

"Epiphany" means "Showing Forth" in Greek. In origin, it is just and Eastern version of Christmas, celebrating the birth of Christ.

But the Western Church kept the Eastern feast also and gradually the theme began to focus not on the birth of Jesus per se, but on the Revelation of the newborn Jesus not to the Jews, but to the Nations of the Earth, the Gentiles.

Since the Infancy Narratives in the Gospels contain the story of the "Magi" (that can be translated as "astrologers" or "astronomers" or "magicians" or "wise men") who come from the East and follow a mysterious star which they know portends the birth of "He who is born King of the Jews", this became the focus of the Feast.

Since there were three gifts given to the Infant Christ--gold, frankincense (most likely from Oman! :) ), and myrrh--the number of these men was understood as Three (which is an Important Number in Christianity as you may have seen! :p ).

And in many stories from early Christian times, the Three Wise Men are understood to be Kings of Gentile Nations, and so they are commonly pictured as The Three Kings: Caspar, Balthasar and Melchior.

The best guess of scholars is that these men were Zoroastrian priests from Persia, since these men specialized in the study of stars and were called Magi in Greek.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/Magi_%281%29.jpg/754px-Magi_%281%29.jpg

this might sound stupid but what is the camel thing?