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Rachel May
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What do you do to celebrate Epiphany? I make a Rosca de Reyes using this recipe, but I'm always looking for a way to make the celebration richer.
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JennGM
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Our family gets together (all siblings and their families) for the Epiphany house blessing. We have crowns and royal robes that we make for the kids. Baby Jesus is Enthroned in the manger with crown and robe, gold fabric surround him and lights, and we have a priest come for dinner and the Epiphany house blessing. We usually make a King Cake.
My husband's birthday is on January 6th. His birthday adds to our celebration. He just loves sweets, so I'd like to try out different recipes for 12th Night Cakes for his birthday. Unfortunately for me, if he likes one recipe, he wants me keep on making that one AND try out the new recipe...so more work for me!!
When we have the blessing, then "three kings" are assigned to travel the house with Father marking the top of the door frames with chalk with: 20 + C + M + B + 05.
We do something similar to this Activity for Epiphany
The Roman Ritual blessings have changed, so we follow the Book of Blessings but include Blessings of Chalk and others, especially this prayer from the old blessing. One of these years I'm going to write it up to hang on my wall: Bless, O Lord, Almighty God, this home, that in it there may be health, chastity, strength of victory, humility, goodness, and industry, a fullness of law and the action of graces through God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and that this blessing may remain on this home and on those who frequent it. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. You can find many Epiphany ideas at www.catholicculture.org. Simply search for Epiphany to find prayers, recipes and activities. These books below also have some nice ideas of plays and parties and other activities for Epiphany. These are the complete books, so you'll need to search through to find the chapters on Epiphany.
Twelve Days of Christmas by Elsa Chaney
True Christmas Spirit by Rev. Edward Sutfin
Here's the King Cake have done the past few years from La Cucina Egeriana. It makes two 9x12 bread rings. The rolling and braiding is a little tricky and time consuming, but it is so delicious and beautiful. My family likes a sweet icing, so I put it on top, but the recipe calls for an egg wash with a colored sugar sprinkle. Either is fine.
Cake:
1 stick butter
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 packages dry yeast
1/3 cup warm water
4 eggs
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
2 tablespoons grated orange rind
5 cups flour plus 1 cup for kneading surface
Melt 1 stick butter, milk, 1/3 cup sugar and salt in a saucepan. Cool to lukewarm. Combine 2 tablespoons sugar, yeast and water in a large mixing bowl. Let stand until it forms (5-10 minutes). Beat eggs into yeast mixture. Then add milk mixture and rings. Stir in flour, 1/2 cup at a time, reserving 1 cup for the kneading surface. Knead dough until smooth (about 5-10 minutes). Place in large mixing bowl that has been greased. Turn dough once to grease top; cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
Filling:
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 stick butter, melted
Topping:
Either 1 egg beaten or Confectioner's Sugar Icing
Then 1/3 cup each colored sugar of purple, yellow and green
2 plastic babies (3/4 inch) or 2 red beans
For filling, mix pecans, brown sugar, granulated sugar and cinnamon. Set aside. For topping, tint sugar by mixing in food coloring until desired shad is reached. For purple, use equal amounts of blue and red. (Use just a drop or two at a time).
When dough has doubled, punch down and divide in half. On a floured surface, roll half into a rectangle 30 x 15 inches. Brush with half of the melted butter and cut into 3 lengthwise strips. Sprinkle half of sugar mixture and pecans on strips, leaving a 1-inch lengthwise strip free for sealing. Fold each strip lengthwise toward the center, sealing the seam. You will now have 3 30-inch strips with sugar and nut mixture enclosed in each. Braid the inch strips with sugar and nut mixture enclosed in each. Braid the 3 strips and make a circle by joining the ends. Repeat with the other half of the dough.
Place each cake on a 10"x15: baking sheet, cover with a damp cloth, and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Brush each egg and sprinkle top with colored sugars, in sequence.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 20 minutes or until cake tests done. Remove from baking sheet immediately so that sugar will not harden. While still warm, place 1 plastic baby or bean in each from underneath the cake.
To freeze, wrap cooled cake tightly in plastic wrap. Before serving, remove plastic and thaw. The cake is best if heated slightly before serving.
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JennGM
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Just some little tidbits on Epiphany and different types of King Cake we have for this day:
Epiphany used to be a fixed date on January 6, and known as Twelfth Night.
"King Cake" is the Louisiana term for the sweet bread served on Epiphany. This is the day that opens up Carnival or Mardi Gras. Here's an interesting explanation of Origins of King Cake.
It seems almost every country has their own version of an Epiphany cake or bread. I couldn't find all the names or types for all the countries, but here's a smattering:
Hispanic Countries: Rosca de los Reyes (Cake of the Kings). This is a fruit and nut filled ring or crown topped with icing and decorations, and bean or tiny doll inserted.
France: Galette (or Gateau) des Roi (or Rois) (Cake of the Kings). Usually this is a round and flat cake, honey-spice or sponge inside. It is decorated with pastry, fruits, or sugared frills. Each cake has a bean, small token or miniature doll inside. A nice tradition: there should be one more piece than the number of guests. The extra portion, la part a Dieu--God's share--is for the first poor person who knocks at the door. The day of the Kings means sharing as well as receiving. Nobody who asks for food or alms will leave empty-handed that day.
England: Twelfth Cake is eaten with Lambs Wool (mulled ale with roasted apple pulp). Inside the cake are a bean and a pea. The man to find the bean was the King of the part, and the woman with the pea is the Queen.
I found this great cookbook called The Festive Bread Book by Kathy Cutler. In her book she has 7 different types of bread or cakes for Epiphany, including ones from Spain, Brazil, Holland and a Twelfth Night Bread of Lady Carcas. This book is OOP. The other book I keep recommending, "Celebrations of Bread" by Betsy Oppenneer, only has one recipe for Epiphany, Rosca de Reyes.
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Kelly
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We do the same things Jenn mentioned, though I never thought to invite one of our priests over to eat. Duh! What a great idea!
In the Spanish tradition, we open presents on the evening of the 6th, all the presents that have "travelled from afar" to our house... the mailed presents, that is. This serves a double purpose of taking the heat off my relatives to "get it out in time for Christmas" AND spreads the wealth a bit, so the children don't get the gimmes too much on Christmas Eve and Day (we open the immediate family presents on Christmas Eve and stockings in the morning on Christmas Day).
We also have a homeschool skating party on Epiphany Day, where we all rent the rink for our group, pizza for lunch, and a huge King Cake with the requisite coins. This is a lot of fun, too.
Kelly in FL
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Mary G
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Since I was little, my family always did our stockings on Little Christmas -- the actual Jan 6th, not the 2nd Sunday as it's been moved in the US. The "Three Kings" filled the stockings, but as we got older, we all helped fill them. It's a great "stretching" of Christmas in our society. Also, due to "traditional" school schedules, it was also the "end" of our Christmas season (altho, I'm thinking we might make our's go till February 2nd this year)....
We always make a king cake and whoever gets the "baby" inside is king for a day and gets to decide food, activities, books to read, etc. Often, they like that part better than the cake!
One year, mom did the 12 days of Christmas -- from Christmas Day through to the 6th, we received a small surprise on our pillow each morning. This was really a fun idea that I keep meaning to try but, keep forgetting..... 
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Elizabeth
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In addition to a few of the things mentioned above, I always save the books I've bought for Christmas until Epiphany. Everyone gets a book or two, wrapped in gold paper. The whole stack of them really looks like the treasure of kings. For me, the books are always the best presents and I love buying them well before Christmas and ignoring Amazon's prompts to upgrade shipping so they will be here before the 24th  . They always arrive in plenty of time and I'm able to take advantage of lots of the book suggestions made here during advent  .
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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JennGM
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Elizabeth wrote:
| In addition to a few of the things mentioned above, I always save the books I've bought for Christmas until Epiphany. Everyone gets a book or two, wrapped in gold paper. The whole stack of them really looks like the treasure of kings. For me, the books are always the best presents and I love buying them well before Christmas and ignoring Amazon's prompts to upgrade shipping so they will be here before the 24th . They always arrive in plenty of time and I'm able to take advantage of lots of the book suggestions made here during advent . |
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I LOVE THIS IDEA!!!! I would agree that the book is the greatest gift! My dh loves to keep up family traditions, so introducing Epiphany gift exchanges wouldn't work, even stockings (Plus, his birthday is Jan. 6, so), but to save only the books (which we ALWAYS give) is brilliant! 
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JennGM
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Kelly wrote:
| We do the same things Jenn mentioned, though I never thought to invite one of our priests over to eat. Duh! What a great idea! |
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It has been very special over the years, and made quite an impression on all. One priest who is now in another parish loves to come every year. This year is significant for me because we are celebrating Epiphany with the family in my new house, so I can have my house blessed. 
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Cay Gibson
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I can't help but laugh.
This past Saturday, a friend brought Chels home and was telling me that her 4 yr old ds was adamant about opening a gift from under the tree. She said they finally decided to let him open one gift that night to settle the suspence.
She gave him a book (complete with a CD) wrapped in Christmas paper and, upon opening the gift, he wailed! She said he carried on for hours, so disappointed in his gift.
Now, in defense of my dear friend, she is a college graduate and taught Latin at Louisiana State University and English at a local high school. She has been teaching a Latin class for our local hs co-op. She is a lover of books as well and her house has stacks of books all over. She probably reads to her dc more than I do! 
But poor little Michael wanted something with bells, whistles, and NOISE! Can you blame him?
Personally, I give books to the kids on the feast of St. Nick.
I like Elizabeth's idea too. Like she mentioned, you can keep a running list of all the great book suggestions and extend the Christmas season into its proper time frame.
I guess the best way to solve the disappointment for little boys (and girls) who like things that light-up and go blink, blimp, and bump is to make it a tradition to give books on St. Nick's Day or Epiphany. That way the expectations are met...and received with true Christmas grace. 
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Kelly
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We definitely "do" the Twelve Days of Christmas, starting with Christmas Eve, the Big Event!, and working our way thru all the major feast days that follow until Epiphany. Since I come from a large family, we tend to have way too much under the tree from the relatives, so I pull lots of things out and stretch out the gift giving with little presents until Epiphany, when we open big presents from "afar". During the Twelve Days of Christmas, though, we do much more than gifts! After light fasting, and *trying* to be abstentious during Advent, we really crank it up for twelve days of celebration, ranging from St. Stephen's Day caroling party (usually at my brother's), to Wassail/Gluhwein on Feast of St. John with it's traditional toast, "to the love of St. John", to Feast of the Holy Innocents when we go to the local crisis pregnancy center with gifts or contributions, and the children in the family get to be "king" for the day, and on and on thru the Feast of the Holy Family,and the Solemnity of Mary, and culminating in Epiphany celebration. We vary what we do on these festive days, from seeing a movie all together at the movie theater (something we rarely do, so it's a real treat!), to going around town to see Christmas lights, to a dinner with friends and their kids, or a family trail ride ensemble. On New Year's Eve, we celebrate Sylvesternacht, the Austrian remembrance of Pope Sylvester who introduced the custom of music and fireworks, and great food as a way to distract from the old pagan ways. We usually have a Sylvesterbal (not necessarily on New Year's Eve,though, usually a day or two afterwards) with lots of Strauss, schnitzle and champagne, heavy duty candlelight, and REAL dancing, all Viennese Waltzing and Tango, all dressed to the nines. It is great fun. We try to concentrate on visiting family and friends thruout these Twelve Days,more frequent Mass, and generally wearing ourselves out. We never, ever suffer Post Christmas Depression, because for us, Christmas STARTS on the 24th!
Kelly in FL
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Mary G
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Ohhhh Kelly -- wil you adopt me?
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momtomany
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These ideas are great! But has anyone done any kind of Epiphany activity for a Catholic homeschool group? We are trying to have some kind of get together for the Epiphany in our small, fledgling group.
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Mary Ann in PA
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momwise
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Mary Ann,
We have had Epiphany parties with our group in the past but it's been a few years and I'm a little fuzzy on the details. If I had known back then how early my mind would beging to go I would have written these things down.
I do remember the kids loving our relay races. If you have a big church hall you can use, the kids can form teams and race with such things as gold, francincense and mhyrr (SP?) on a spoon, between their knees, pushed on the floor with their noses, etc.
Here is a Spiritual Gifts activity suitable for a group. The cake ideas on this thread could be used, with the finder of the hidden surprise being the winner of a prize. Children could come dressed as kings and queens. A simple craft for children to do with parents could be Candles for Candlemas. In our family, my siblings bring all their children over for cookie decorating, which could be done with a group, especially if someone has cutters and can bring cookie shapes for the Nativity and 3 kings. And of course bring song sheets and sing carols.
Other than that, we usually just have a pot-luck and enjoy a time of socializing. You don't need much for your first party. Most small children will be ready to go (read: bouncing off the walls) after a couple of hours
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momtomany
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Thanks Gwen!
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LLMom
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We always give 3 family gifts. At least one book, sometimes a game and a family video.
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JennGM
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Back to Epiphany...some places are celebrating today. Wish it was us. But it's Dh's birthday today, so that's our celebration.
I'm running out of time...I would like to make a King Cake, Twelfth Night Cake, something. My usual is King Cake, like above, but it takes a chunk of time. I'm looking for a recipe that doesn't require rising...a cake, not bread. I've only found the French versions Gateau or Galette de Rois and English which is more fruitcakey. Anyone have a tried and true recipe? I've had one too many blow-ups that I don't want to take any risks this time.
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Anne Marie M
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Jenn,
Several years I've done fancy cakes or breads. However, when I'm short on time (like this year), we make a bundt cake (from a mix), frost it, and decorate with M&Ms, jelly beans, gumdrops, whatever's on hand. This year we had a tea party with kings cake for our celebration.
Have fun!
Anne Marie
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JennGM
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I ended up having time to make the cake. It was an Epiphany treat for myself. I love kneading bread.
I'm wondering when everyone celebrates Epiphany: the traditional January 6, or with the Church on Sunday?
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Jennifer G. Miller
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alicegunther
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jenngm67 wrote:
I'm wondering when everyone celebrates Epiphany: the traditional January 6, or with the Church on Sunday?
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Both! Yesterday, we put our Wise Man in the Nativity scene and went to my mother's for a fun get together. She had all kinds of food and treats for the kids and asked them to put the Wise Men in her outdoor Nativity. In the evening, we had chocolate cake--from the bakery, I'm afraid.
Tomorrow, of course, we'll go to Mass, so that's a celebration in itself. I am also hoping to do a craft with them. Something simple like decorating crowns with jewels. I'm also planning a special dinner of loin of pork with all the trimmings.
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Mary G
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jenngm67 wrote:
I ended up having time to make the cake. It was an Epiphany treat for myself. I love kneading bread.
I'm wondering when everyone celebrates Epiphany: the traditional January 6, or with the Church on Sunday?
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This year we did both -- had a family visit us on Friday so we pulled out all the stops and made your King Cake  -- which the kids and I really had fun making. We couldn't decide between a sweet cream cheese filling and the pecans and spices Jenn had so we did a roll of each and twisted (rather than 3 and braiding) them together into a ring. It was yummy!
Today we'll go to Latin Mass this afternoon and have a potluck supper after - it's mostly hs'ers that go to the Latin Mass so it's a fun way to get together twice a month.
We also did the stockings this morning (the 3Kings and Mom fill those) and will have dh's parents for a luncheon....
Epiphany marks the end of the Christmas season for us -- we'll start taking down the decorations this week and shifting to the "ordinary time" on the altar, etc. It always seems so drab after all the Christmas decorations, candles, special plates and bowls (I've been collecting the Pfaltzgraf "Winterberry" for years) -- now we go back to plain cream colored stoneware 
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Epiphany
