EPIPHANY, nf, (Latin epiphania, appearance or evidence), festival of the Cath olic, Anglican and Eastern churches held on 6 January to commemorate the manifestations of Jesus Christ as son of God; (1) to the Wise men of the East (Magi) at Bethlehem; (2) at his baptism by John in the Jordan, when the voice from heaven proclaimed, art my beloved son in whom I am well pleased)); (3) at the marriage feast at Cana in Galilee, where Jesus wrought his first miracle. The observance of this festival can be traced to an earlier pe riod in the Eastern Church than in the Western. In the Greek Church it was observed as early as the 2d century, but the event commemorated by the Greeks was not the visit of the Magi to Nazareth but the manifestation of Jesus at the Jordan as the Messiah. Not till the 4th cen tury does the Epiphany appear to have been ob served in the Latin Church. In the Greek and Oriental churches it is customary to administer baptism on the eve of this festival, with un wonted solemnity. This is said to be because of the relation of the festival to the baptism of Jesus by Saint John. In those churches, too, the Epiphany (Epiphaneia, Theophaneia) was the festival commemorative of the birth of Jesus; for it was believed that the baptism in the Jordan took place precisely on the 30th anniversary of the birth. A popular name for this festival in English is Day,' that is, twelfth day from Christmas. It is also called Christmas?) In various other languages it is known as Kings' Day,' or ((Day of the Kings.' In the Western Church special attention was paid to the celebration of the adoration of the Magi. This was followed by the celebration of baptism and the miracle of Cana, the latter being held on the succeeding Sunday. In England special holiday celebra tions were held on the 12th day and the 12th night when the Christmas festivities closed. Following the provisions of the Council of Nicza, the date of Easter has long been an nounced with great solemnity on the 12th night. Connected with the celebration of Epiphany, it was the custom in the Middle Ages and even later, to have sorts of miracle plays in the churches in order thus to visualize to the people the events commemorated on the occasion. These were frequently given during the mass. Similar dramatic representations of a still more popular character were given by the people themselves in their own homes. Performances of this nature, though now generated into popular entertainment, are still to be met with in parts of Germany, Tirol,, the mountain dis tricts of Austria and occasionally among the Christianized Indians and mestizos of Latin America. This dramatic representation gen erally presented the oblation of the wise men, and fitted it in so that it appeared to form a natural part of the mass. In the traditions of the church the wise men were venerated as the ((Three Holy Kings') after which the festival was itself frequently called, being variously designated as festum mum regum, festum magorum, festum stellae. It has long been the custom in the College of the Propaganda at Rome for young men belonging to various foreign nations to represent, by speeches in their .native languages, the appearance of Jesus the Christ unto all nations.
There was a tendency in the early days of the Epiphany to connect it with the heathen spring festival, and more especially with the sacrifices and offerings made to the gods of the running waters, in the rivers, the streams and the clouds. Some Christian communities even
followed this old pagan custom and blessed the water, the rivers and lakes. This same pagan custom is noticeable in the attempts of certain sections of the Christian Church to make of the Epiphany a special day of baptism, or as it was called dies luminum. The Franks, who before their conversion to Christianity, had held special spring ceremonies in honor of the gods of growth and fertility, seem to have been strong supporters of the custom of Epiphany Baptisms. This custom probably corresponded to a spring purification ceremony (by water) common among the Franks and Germanic races in general. The custom of making Epiphany a day of baptism was also strongly clung to in the African Christian Church. The consecrating of the water sur vived the baptismal and other semi-papan rites in the Greek Church and is still observed in Russia. The Church connected this baptismal custom with that of the baptism of Christ by John; but it seems not to have become cus tomary until the spread of Christianity into the Frankish and Sclave countries where the sacrifices and other ceremonies connected with the deities of growth and fertility were also offered to the gods of water. In explaining this cusious blending of pagan religious cere monies and celebrations with Christian tradi tiona7 history, Christian writers have asserted that the first baptism of Christ was, in a sense, his real birth, since it was his first manifesta tion to man. So it was common, in early Chris tian centuries, to include the ceremony of the commemoration of the birth of Christ in that of Epiphany; and it was only considerably later that the Christian celebration came into vogue. Thus the ancient pagan celebration of the "ap pearance of the new birth of spring," the purification by water and the celebrations in honor of the occasion, split into separate parts, became two of the greatest festivals in the Christian Church, and have continued to main tain their position as such to the present day.
It is probable that the custom of presents from the wise men to the infant Jesus arose out of the practice of presenting offerings to the gods of nature and growth at the spring festi val, and also of a similar custom in vogue among the Roman people who made presents to one another on this occasion. The fact that Epiphany is one of the oldest ceremonies in the Christian Church, having already been established by the time of Clement of Alexan dria, who lived in the latter half of the 2d and the early part of the 3d centuries, would seem to indicate that it was the survival of earlier customs and ceremonies; since, even at this early date, there was some considerable speculation as to its origin. See MAGI.
Bibliography.— Bingham, R., (Antiquities' (London 1834) ; Blumenbach, H., 'Antiquitates Epephamorum' (Leipzig 1773) ; Chambers, 'Book of (London 1864) ; Herzog, (Real Encyklopadie) ; Jacoby, A., (Bericht ueber die Taufe Jesus) (Strassburg 1902) ; Kellner, K. A. H., (Heortologie) (Freiburg 1906) ; Nazianz, G., (Antwerp 1869) ; Schutze, J. L. D., festo Sanctorum Lumi num) (Leipzig 1841).