Epiphany means “shining forth”. The season of Epiphany goes from January 6 to Lent. Epiphany is one of the oldest Christian holidays, celebrated since the second century in the Eastern Church. Epiphany was a double celebration of the birth & the baptism of Jesus. The Western Church adapted the focus to the visit of the Magi or Kings.
Some years I’ve done a star shaped dinner with my family. Last year I read a post (which of course I can’t find now) about how one family celebrated Epiphany, which included leaving gifts in a shoe on the evening of 5 Jan. After reading this post I bought some chocolate coins (to represent the gift of gold) and put a Bible verse on it and hid it under the pillow of each member of my family. In the last few years I’ve also kept the wise men in my nativity set “journeying” to the manger until Jan 5 when I put them with the rest of the nativity. I then leave out my nativity set for a few weeks longer.
Here are some other ideas to celebrate Epiphany in your household or with friends. You can celebrate on the Evening of Jan 5 or on Jan 6:
- Decorate with stars
- Make Epiphany Star Biscuits
- Use this Star of Wonder Book
- Use this short liturgy as you begin your meal
- Make an Epiphany King Cake
- Make this 3 Spices Epiphany Cake
- Have a star shaped meal – I’ve done star shaped rissoles with star shaped potato slices & carrots; finished with /star shaped shortbread.
- Use this idea for Chalking the Door to bless all in your home.
- Use this Guiding Star activity
Shortbread star biscuits 
This year we’ve invited a few friends over for a shared meal. I’ll use stars to decorate and keep up our star shaped lights. We’ll start the meal with an adaption of the liturgy linked to above. I also plan on using an adaption of the guiding star activity by printing out some of the stars from here. We’ll probably do this during dessert which will include star shaped short bread, star shaped pastry cases for caramel or apple pie with pastry stars on it.
Do you ever celebrate Epiphany and if so what do you do?