Party in the Creche!

Happy Epiphany! Did you receive your twelve lords a-leaping?

Today, January 6th, is the day celebrated as the day the Magi/Three Wisemen arrived to give Jesus his prezzies. In the Orthodox church, this is the day when people give their christmas presents (often referred to as "Ukrainian Christmas" in Canada), and really, it makes more sense, but I am Anglican, and we give presents on the 25th.

Anyway, in my house Epiphany is the day that the three plaster wisemen finally make it around the table to the nativity scene, and we take down all the christmas decorations.

I am not exactly sure why Epiphany is the day when the decorations "must come down", but it is, and so we take them down. I asked my grandmother once (actually I whined that I wanted the decorations left up longer) and I was given a vague answer about it being bad luck to leave them up past the 6th. It is also apparently bad luck to take them down before Epiphany, although we do cheat some years, but usually, like today, the decorations all come down in one fell swoop. They usually sit around on the table for a few days afterward waiting to be put in boxes, and the naked tree still sits in the corner, but they apparently don't count as decorations if they are not on the tree or in their special spots throughout the house.

This year was a bit different though. in our family the players in the nativity scene are only allowed out on their appointed day, before that, they are hidden behind the picture frames. So when the decrations go up, Mary, Joseph and the animals are set up on the table. Then on Christmas Morning, Baby Jesus comes out and the Wisemen start their long journey around the edge of the table, until they arrive at the manger on the 6th. Well, this year, we forgot about the wisemen until about 2pm, when we moved them from the corner of the table to in front of the baby Jesus, so mom and I decided not to put them away just yet, because they had only just got there and needed time to visit. Then, when all the boxes were packed up and being put back under the stairs, we told my dad he couldn't take the nativity box yet because the Wisemen needed some more time to party in the manger.

I believe I actually told my dad they were still "Rocking out with Baby Jesus"