Παρασκευή 3 Ιανουαρίου 2020

Epiphany: A Greek Orthodox Celebration Rich in Tradition

Epiphany is one of the most sacred Greek Orthodox celebrations, rich in many Christian traditions which also date back to ancient times.
Epiphany (also called Theofania or Fota) is celebrated on January 6 and is a day of joy and brightness, as Christians celebrate the baptism of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist.

The most important ritual is the “blessing of the waters”, which is performed by the Greek Orthodox priest. In seaside or lakeside areas, there is also the ritual of the priest throwing a special cross into the water and swimmers jumping in the water to recover it. It is believed that the person who captures the cross and returns it to the priest will be blessed for the whole year.

On the 6th of January Eastern Orthodox and Western Christians celebrated the great Feast of Epiphany (Western) or Theophany (Eastern). This Feast introduced a new period of liturgical celebration, which is still with us – a celebration that goes right back to Christian beginnings and opens up the meaning of the Christian faith and tradition.

Epiphany (from the Greek epiphaneia) means “manifestation from above,” that is, “divine revelation.” The Christian feast of the Epiphany primarily entails the manifestation of God in Christ, Christ being manifested as the Son of God and God as the Trinity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The Eastern Epiphany celebrates the Baptism of Christ in the River Jordan by John the Baptist or “Forerunner” (in Greek Prodromos) as the event of the manifestation of Christ as the Son of God and its corollary, the manifestation of God in Trinity, and also as the event that marks the beginning of Christ’s saving mission. This is particularly revealed in the service of the Great Sanctification of the Waters (Megas Agiasmos), which is reminiscent of Christ’s Baptism and constitutes a conspicuous feature of the Eastern celebration.

The Western Epiphany celebrates the veneration of the newborn Christ by the wise Oriental Magi as the event that marks the manifestation of the divinity of Christ to the “nations.” Especially since medieval times, Western Christianity developed an elaborate tradition around these Oriental figures – fixing their number to three and identifying them with three kings, called Melchior, Gaspar and Balthasar – a tradition that included the re-discovery of their bodies at the Church of St. Eustorgio in Milan (1158), where they had been transferred from Constantinople in the 4th century, and their re-transference and deposition in Cologne Cathedral by Frederick Barbarossa (1164).