Category Archives: Days and Seasons

Epiphany Cake

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One of the kings from the 2015 Epiphany parade in Prague.

One of the kings from the 2015 Epiphany parade in Prague.

Epiphany, traditionally celebrated on January 6, is the celebration (in Western Christianity) of the arrival of the Magi to adore the Christ Child. (Among the Eastern Christians, the Epiphany is the celebration of the Baptism of Christ.) There are many traditional festivities, such as the Three Kings Parades — one of the best is in East Harlem! But the one in Prague (seen above) is pretty splendid as well.

An Epiphany Cake, also called a King Cake, is customarily served at the festive dinner on January 6. Inside the cake are often placed a bean or other trinkets, to indicate good fortune or wealth in the coming year as well as to mark who will be responsible for baking the cake at the next Epiphany celebration.

Here is my favorite Epiphany Cake recipe:

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tsps. baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup milk
1 1/2 tsps. vanilla
2 eggs

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour cake pan.
Melt the butter in a small pan on the stove.
Mix together all the dry ingredients.
Add the eggs, vanilla, and milk. Mix well.
Add the melted butter. Mix well again.
Pour batter into cake pan.
Bake approx. 45-60 minutes.

Most important: Don’t forget to lick the bowl and spoon!

Icing (if desired):
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup cream
2 tsps. vanilla
3 cups sugar

Combine the butter, cream, and vanilla.
Slowly add the sugar.
Add more sugar or a few more drops of cream to reach the proper consistency.
Spread on cool cake.

Again — don’t forget to lick the bowl and spoon!

Holy Innocents’ Day

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The Massacre of the Innocents (detail) by Lucas Cranach the Elder (c. 1515), National Museum in Warsaw.

The Massacre of the Innocents (detail) by Lucas Cranach the Elder (c. 1515), National Museum in Warsaw.

Also known as Innocents’ Day or Childermas, this day commemorates the massacre of all the male children two years and under in Bethlehem as ordered by King Herod, who hoped that the infant Jesus would be among them. Not surprisingly, this day has long been regarded as unlucky—particularly for getting married or undertaking any important task. Edward IV of England went so far as to change the day of his coronation when he realized it would fall on December 28. Most modern folk recognize the account of the slaying of the children from the popular Coventry Carol.

In ancient times, the “Massacre of the Innocents” was reenacted by whipping the younger members of a family. But over the years the tables turned, and in some countries it has become a day when children play pranks on their elders. In Mexico, Childermas is the equivalent of April Fool’s Day. In some areas of western Europe, the day of the week on which Holy Innocents’ fell was considered a holiday in each following week of the year until the next celebration of the feast. Or, in some places, that weekday was considered unlucky and ill-omened in each week until the next Holy Innocents’ Day.

The Greek liturgy asserts that Herod killed 14,000 boys, the Syrians speak of 64,000, many medieval authors of 144,000 (the number of the young men in white described in Revelation 14:3). Modern writers reduce the number considerably, since Bethlehem was a rather small town. Modern scholars now consider the number of children killed to have been more likely fifteen or twenty. This cruel deed of Herod is not mentioned by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, although he relates quite a number of atrocities committed by the king during the last years of his reign. The number of these children was so small that this crime appeared insignificant amongst the other misdeeds of Herod. One ancient historian relates that when Augustus heard that amongst the boys of two years and under Herod’s own son also had been massacred, he said: “It is better to be Herod’s hog [ous], than his son [houios],” alluding to the Jewish law of not eating, and consequently not killing, swine.

The Star of Bethlehem

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Eastern Orthodox icon of the birth of Christ by St. Andrei Rublev, 15th century. Note that the shepherd speaking with St. Joseph in the lower left is shown in profile, a pose reserved only for this shepherd, the Devil, and for Judas Iscariot and which indicates their interior wickedness and efforts to hide themselves from God. Also, the cave in which Christ is born is painted with the same absolute black pigment -- unmixed with any other dark colors, which is more usual -- as is the tomb of Christ or the abyss of Hell, into which the Divine Presence has entered.

Eastern Orthodox icon of the birth of Christ by St. Andrei Rublev, 15th century. Note that the shepherd speaking with St. Joseph in the lower left is shown in profile, a pose reserved only for this shepherd, the Devil, and for Judas Iscariot and which indicates their interior wickedness and efforts to hide themselves from God. Also, the cave in which Christ is born is painted with the same absolute black pigment — unmixed with any other dark colors, which is more usual — as is the tomb of Christ or the abyss of Hell, into which the Divine Presence has entered.

“We have seen his star in the East,” the magi told King Herod. “We have come to worship him.”

This news was a surprise to King Herod. He had no idea that a new King of the Jews had been born and had clearly NOT seen the star the magi had. What was the “star” which the magi claimed they had seen and which had told them to come find the newborn King in Judea? Since no one in Jerusalem seems to have seen it, the star could not have been a bright light in the sky or they would have noticed it. Since the Gospel text says that Herod later had all the boys aged two years or younger killed in his attempt to kill the Christ Child, the “star” must have been an astronomical event of some sort rather than a bright light or all the other parents whose children were butchered by Herod’s soldiers would have pointed out the house and said, “No! Not our children — the boy you want is in that house! There!” Also, the magi evidently had seen the star at least 2 years before and it had taken them that long to travel to Jerusalem.

I remember reading reports in December 1975 (my senior year of high school!) that the “star” was in fact a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the constellation Pisces — and that this conjunction occurs once every 800 years! The magi, being astrologers, would have understood this to mean that a great king (Jupiter) who would usher in the End of Days (Saturn) was being born in Judea (Pisces). This conjunction occurred in December 1975, according to these reports, but I was unable to see it as I was not sure exactly where to look in the sky or on which date(s) to look.

In Orthodox icons (such as the one above), the Star of Bethlehem is often depicted not as a bright light but as a dark aureola, a semicircle at the top of the icon, indicating the “divine darkness” or Uncreated Light of Divine grace, with a ray pointing to “the place where the young child lay” (Matt 2:9). Sometimes the faint image of an angel is drawn inside the dark semi-circle, pointing the way for the Magi.