Epiphany is a special, holy day that is often forgotten after all the Christmas festivities. Here are my family’s simple Epiphany traditions that you can celebrate in your home too!
A Little Bit of History
Epiphany falls on January 6th, after twelve celebratory days of Christmas which begin on Christmas day. The word “epiphany” means “manifestation,” and in this case refers to the mystery of our God appearing to us in visible form. While Christmas celebrates the union of Christ’s divinity with His humanity, Epiphany celebrates the union of our souls with Christ.
During Epiphany, we especially remember the Three Kings, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, who traveled to adore our newborn King.
“Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East, and are come to adore Him.” (Matthew 2:2)
They realized the significance of the star from studying the prophecies that foretold the coming of the Redeemer, and followed it day and night.
After seeking information from King Herod, they finally arrived at the stable to greet Christ.
“And entering into the house, they found the Child with Mary His mother, and falling down they adored Him. And opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” (Matthew 2:11)
The gold represents Christ as King. Frankincense is an incense which is used in Mass, and represents Christ as Priest. Myrrh was used in olden days to embalm bodies before burial, and represents Christ as the Sacrifice, as He would die for us.
There are many ways to celebrate this great feast! Here are my family’s Epiphany traditions that might inspire you to start your own, or to add on to your existing ones.
Epiphany Traditions
1. Traveling Magi
Starting during Christmas week, our three kings make their way from the furthest room in the house to the Nativity set which is on display atop our piano.
Every day we move them just a little bit closer. They start in the bedrooms and then they travel through the kitchen. We put them on the windowsills and we even make them the centerpiece on our dining room table.
The last room they make their way through is the living room. They travel across our altar and then the coffee table before making it to their destination.
On Epiphany, they finally make it to the stable with their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
2. Chalking the Doors
Another Epiphany tradition is chalking the doors of our home for protection against spiritual dangers. Using chalk specially blessed at Mass, the father of the home writes 20 C+M+B 25 over all of the doors.
The numbers represent the current year, 2025, and the letters represent the three Kings. C= Caspar, M= Melchior, and B= Balthasar. This shows that the three kings are protecting the home from evil spirits through their intercession.
The exterior doors are the most important to be marked, but many people mark the interior doors of their home also.
3. House Blessing
Then there is the Epiphany tradition of the house blessing. The father leads the whole family through the house, blessing all the rooms using Epiphany water. Epiphany water is holy water that has been blessed with a longer formula and even an exorcism.
Going through the house, each room gets blessed, but it doesn’t stop there! Outside can be blessed too. If you have a garden or some animals, then you would also bless your garden as well as wherever you keep your animals.
While Colby is blessing all the rooms, we sing “We Three Kings of Orient Are,” but other hymns or prayers work too. I recommend sticking to whatever has some mention of the kings. “The First Noel” has a few verses about the Magi, so that would also be a great hymn to use if your family is more familiar with it.
4. King Cake
Perhaps everyone’s favorite tradition of all the Epiphany traditions is the famous king cake.
King cake is normally oval shaped with a cinnamon filling, topped with glaze icing and sanding sugar. In Louisiana, a plastic baby, representing Jesus, is hidden inside the king cake. In some families, whoever gets the baby has to bring a king cake to the next gathering.
With its cinnamon filling and glaze icing, king cake is very similar to cinnamon rolls.
Three years ago, I started making our king cake at home and my husband is hooked! This is my second year making it sourdough!
We are big fans of lemon, so I usually make a lemon filling for ours, but I’m going to expand our fillings to include some cream cheese combos. Blueberry cheesecake anyone?
Plain king cake with just the cinnamon filling is the classic flavor, but I’ve always preferred it to have a filling.
When it comes to the king cake filling, the possibilities are endless! Cream cheese, strawberry cream cheese, Bavarian cream, chocolate, blueberry, raspberry, apple, pineapple, pecan praline, turtle and the list goes on and on and on. These are just a few of the flavors you can find in the grocery stores this time of year.
After a lemon filling, my favorites are Bavarian cream, cream cheese and then the other fruit fillings.
If you’ve never had king cake before, definitely start with either the plain or the cream cheese. After that, go wherever your stomach tells you to go!
Conclusion
I hope the brief list of our Epiphany traditions inspires you to begin some with your family, or to add some on to your current celebrations. We look forward to this celebration every year, and one of the reasons it remains so special to us is that the whole family can participate.
It is so fun moving our statues of the three kings and their camels through the rooms of the house and anticipating their joyful arrival at the stable. Hearing the prayers for our home blessing and singing hymns together truly envelops us in all the special gifts this time of year brings. The smell of the fresh king cakes alongside the Christmas tree fills our home with such comfort and adds to all of our joy.
Of course, so many memories are made each year, and each year various details can be added or adjusted depending on our needs. I hope that this feast day becomes a time of great joy for you. Let us rejoice in the miracles of God!
God Bless and happy Epiphany!
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