January 6th is Three Kings Day. Epiphany is a Greek word meaning a sudden comprehension, and it marks the visitation of the Magi. It is the twelfth and final day of Christmas.
In places where they know how to have a good time, today marks the start of carnival season which lasts right through Mardi Gras Day. In New Orleans, friends gather for weekly King Cake parties.
A wonderfully gaudy looking thing you won't find in Seattle.
Those ponies are stinking cute, but above a dead serious, 6th century Ravenna mosaic. Such forward urgency and yearning expressed with tiny bits of stone. What a masterpiece!
It is considered bad luck to leave Christmas decorations up past Twelfth
Night, and if you do, you're supposed to burn them on Shrove Tuesday,
February 9th. So many old pagan superstitions (or more kindly, traditions) wrapped up in the Liturgical Calendar.
Everything is finally packed away here
and hauled back up in the attic, with the exception of the outdoor lights
which I take down around Ground Hogs Day.
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