Epiphany 2027: the Magi, the star and what the feast means
On Wednesday, January 6, the Church remembers the wise men who followed a star to Bethlehem. What the feast means, who the Magi were, and how it is kept around the world.
The MySavior teamUpdated · 10 min read
When they saw the star, they rejoiced with great delight.
Matthew 2:10 · BSB
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
Isaiah 60:1 · BSB
Epiphany is the Christian feast of the Magi, the wise men who followed a star to Bethlehem, and of the moment the light of Christ was shown to the whole world. In 2027 it falls on Wednesday, January 6, 2027, though most Catholic parishes in the United States will keep it on Sunday, January 3.
The word comes from the Greek epiphaneia, an appearing. Christmas is God arriving quietly, to a young mother in a small town. Epiphany is the same child being seen: by foreign scholars who read the sky, by a crowd at the Jordan, by wedding guests at Cana who tasted water that had become wine.
Below: what the feast means, who the Magi really were, why the Eastern churches keep it as the feast of Christ’s baptism, and how families from Madrid to New Orleans keep it, with a short prayer for the day.
What the day is
Three ways Christ was shown to the world
From early on, January 6 gathered three moments when Christ was shown for who he is: the visit of the Magi, the baptism in the Jordan, and the first sign at the wedding in Cana.
The Western churches came to put the Magi at the center, which is why the day is often called Three Kings Day. The Eastern churches put the baptism first and call the feast Theophany, the appearing of God. Both are saying that the child born at Christmas was not only for Mary, Joseph and a few shepherds. He came for everyone.
The Gospel of the day
Matthew 2:2
asking, “Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”
Matthew 2:2 · BSB
The Gospel for Epiphany is Matthew 2:1–12, and it opens with outsiders asking the question the insiders should have been asking. Strangers reach Jerusalem with nothing but a star and a hunch, and the city that knew the Scriptures best had noticed nothing.
There is comfort in how little the Magi knew. They went to the wrong city first. They had to ask for directions. They kept going anyway, and they found him.
When the star stops
Matthew 2:10
When they saw the star, they rejoiced with great delight.
Matthew 2:10 · BSB
Matthew spends very few words on how the Magi felt, so these count. After a long road and a tense audience with Herod, the star goes ahead of them and stops over the place where the child is. Some prayers are answered like that: after a long silence, all at once. The right response is joy.
Wise men, not kings
Who the Magi were, and who they were not
Matthew never says there were three of them, and he never calls them kings. The Greek word is magoi, a name for the priestly scholars of Persia, men who studied the stars. The number three came later, from the three gifts. The crowns came from the Old Testament: Psalm 72 and Isaiah 60 speak of kings and nations bringing gifts, and early readers saw the Magi in those lines. The names Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar first appear in a Latin chronicle of the eighth century.
Matthew also says the Magi came to a house, not a stable, and Herod later ordered the death of the boys of Bethlehem two years old and under. The visit may have come well after the night of the birth. Their relics are said to rest in a golden shrine in Cologne Cathedral, brought from Milan in the twelfth century.
Gold, frankincense and myrrh
Matthew 2:11
On coming to the house, they saw the Child with His mother Mary, and they fell down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Matthew 2:11 · BSB
The whole story slows down here. After the long road, the palace and the star, there is only a child and his mother, and grown men on their knees.
Christians have read the gifts as a small creed ever since. In the third century, Origen of Alexandria put it this way in Against Celsus (Book I, chapter 60): “gold … as to a king; myrrh, as to one who was mortal; and incense, as to a God.” The Magi carried the whole story to the cradle before anyone else understood it.
The first reading
Isaiah 60:1
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
Isaiah 60:1 · BSB
At Catholic Mass on Epiphany the first reading is Isaiah 60:1–6, written to a battered Jerusalem after the exile. The prophet tells a city in ruins to get up because its light is coming, and nations will come to it carrying gold and frankincense. Matthew never quotes the passage, but you can hear it under his story.
It is a good word for a gray January, too. The decorations are coming down and the days are still short. The light has already come.
January 6, or the nearest Sunday
When Epiphany is in 2027
Epiphany is always January 6, the day after the twelve days of Christmas. In 2027 that is a Wednesday. The evening before, Tuesday, January 5, is Twelfth Night, the old end of the Christmas feasting and, in English tradition, the night the decorations come down.
In the United States, the Catholic Church moves the feast to the Sunday between January 2 and 8, which in 2027 is Sunday, January 3. Orthodox churches that follow the older calendar, such as the Russian and Serbian churches, celebrate Theophany when January 6 comes on their reckoning, which is Tuesday, January 19 on ours. The whole year is on one page in our Christian holidays 2027 calendar.
Theophany: the baptism in the Jordan
Matthew 3:17
And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!”
Matthew 3:17 · BSB
In the East, January 6 is first of all the feast of Christ’s baptism. Jesus goes down into the Jordan alongside sinners, the Spirit comes down like a dove, and the Father speaks. Father, Son and Spirit are shown at once, which is why the feast is called Theophany. Western churches keep the baptism on its own Sunday soon after.
It is also the day of the Great Blessing of the Waters. The priest blesses a river, a lake or the sea, and often throws a cross into it for swimmers to bring back. In Tarpon Springs, Florida, the Greek Orthodox community does this every year: young men aged 16 to 18 dive into Spring Bayou, and the one who brings up the cross is said to be blessed for the year. In Russia, where the rivers are frozen, a hole is cut in the ice so the water can be blessed.
The third sign: Cana
John 2:11
Jesus performed this, the first of His signs, at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.
John 2:11 · BSB
The third epiphany is the quietest. A wedding runs out of wine, Mary notices, and Jesus has six stone jars filled with water that becomes wine, so good that the steward thinks the best was saved for last.
The old liturgies set it beside the Magi and the Jordan on purpose. God shows himself to scholars from far away, to a crowd at a river, and to a family trying to keep a wedding from going wrong. No room is too small for him.
A house blessing for the new year
Chalking the door
In much of central Europe, and in many parishes elsewhere, chalk is blessed at Epiphany, and families take it home to write over the front door: 20+C+M+B+27. The year is split around the letters. C, M and B are the initials of Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, and also of the Latin Christus mansionem benedicat, “May Christ bless the house.” The crosses stand for Christ.
In Germany and Austria, children dressed as the three kings go from door to door as Sternsinger, star singers. They sing, chalk the blessing over the door and collect money for children in need. In Poland, families write the same blessing as K+M+B, from the Polish spellings of the names.
How the world keeps it
King cake, a hidden bean and a crown for the day
In France, families cut the galette des rois, a golden puff-pastry cake with a fève hidden inside: once a bean, now usually a little porcelain figure. Whoever finds it is king or queen for the day and wears the paper crown. Spain bakes the roscón de reyes, and much of Latin America the rosca de reyes. In Mexico, whoever finds the figure of the infant Jesus in the rosca hosts tamales for everyone on Candlemas, February 2.
In Louisiana, Epiphany opens the Carnival season, and king cake stays on office tables until Mardi Gras, which in 2027 is Tuesday, February 9. There, whoever finds the little plastic baby brings the next cake.
In Spain, children get their main presents on the morning of January 6, from the Three Kings, after parades through town the evening before. In Italy, La Befana, an old woman whose name comes from Epifania, brings sweets to good children and coal to the others.
On your iPhone
Count the days to Epiphany
The weeks after Christmas go fast, and Epiphany slips past most of us before we notice it. MySavior’s Christian Countdown widget keeps it in view: set its event to Epiphany and it shows how many days are left on your Lock Screen or Home Screen, going down by one every night at midnight. It counts to January 6 itself.
The same widget knows 30 feasts, so once January 6 has passed you can point it at Candlemas, or at Mardi Gras for the last of the king cake.
Sunday, November 8
9:41
Count down to Epiphany on your Lock ScreenMySavior’s Christian Countdown widget keeps January 6 in view, along with Candlemas, Mardi Gras, Easter and the other feasts of the year.
★ Rated 4.9 on the US App StoreLoved by Christians in 60+ countries8,000+ people every month
To say on January 6
A prayer for Epiphany
Lord Jesus, you let yourself be found by strangers who followed a star. Give me their patience on the road and their joy when the star stops. Show yourself in my house this year, at the table and at the door, and let me carry your light to someone who has not seen it yet. Amen.
Say it in the morning, or at the front door with the chalk in your hand. If there are children in the house, let them read the line about the star.
A small practice for this week
On Twelfth Night or on the feast itself, take a piece of chalk, blessed at church if you can, and write 20+C+M+B+27 over your front door. Say the prayer above as you do it, and name the people who will come through that door this year.
Then remember how the story ends: “And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they withdrew to their country by another route.” (Matthew 2:12 (BSB)). The Magi did not go home the way they came. Pick one road in your own life, a habit or a conversation, and take it differently this year, now that you have seen him.
Keep the light of Epiphany in view
Bible verse and prayer widgets you design yourself, a countdown to the feasts of the year, and a saint for every day.
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Questions
When is Epiphany 2027?
Epiphany is Wednesday, January 6, 2027. It is always January 6, the day after Twelfth Night. In the United States, the Catholic Church keeps it on the Sunday between January 2 and 8, which in 2027 is Sunday, January 3. Orthodox churches on the older calendar celebrate Theophany on Tuesday, January 19. In 2028, Epiphany falls on Thursday, January 6, 2028.
What does Epiphany mean?
Epiphany comes from the Greek epiphaneia, “appearance” or “manifestation.” The feast celebrates Christ being shown to the world: to the Magi, who stand for all the nations; at his baptism in the Jordan; and at the wedding at Cana.
Is Epiphany the same as Three Kings Day?
Yes. In Spain and Latin America it is el Día de los Reyes Magos, and many English speakers call it Three Kings Day. The Bible does not say there were three Magi or that they were kings; the number comes from their three gifts, and the crowns from Psalm 72 and Isaiah 60.
What do the letters C+M+B on a door mean?
They are the initials of the three Magi in tradition, Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, and of the Latin Christus mansionem benedicat, “May Christ bless the house.” The year is written around them, so for 2027 the blessing reads 20+C+M+B+27.
What are the Bible readings for Epiphany?
At Catholic Mass they are Isaiah 60:1–6, Psalm 72, Ephesians 3:2–3a, 5–6 and Matthew 2:1–12, the visit of the Magi. Every verse quoted in this article is from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB).
