A Happy New Year to all! And, as we say in the Philippines, 'Happy Three Kings!' The Epiphany is properly celebrated on 6 January. The Philippines, and some other countries, observe it on the second Sunday after Christmas. About 40 years ago the Irish bishops switched the feast to that Sunday but the people were very unhappy with the change and they moved it back to its proper date after only two or three years.
This is one of the Church's oldest feasts, being observed universally since the fourth century. Among Easter Christians, both Catholic and Orthodox, the Epiphany is a much more important feast than Christmas. It is in many ways a missionary feast since it celebrates the recognition of the Savior by symbolic representatives of the Gentiles and has an implicit call to bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
President Arroyo has moved around every single distinctively Filipino national holiday - Independence Day, Rizal Day, Bonifacio Day, etc, in recent years to create long weekends for government employees. Many think she has diminished the meaning of these holidays. Has the Church diminished the significance of feasts such as the Epiphany and the Ascension, both rooted in the Gospels and in the life of Jesus, by allowing them to be observed on Sundays? What do you think?
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