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Epiphany

I must admit, I had a hole in my knowledge (or memory) but I had to look up the actual meaning of the Epiphany. I knew it is one of those religious holidays and something to do with the Christmas. In finnish it's called loppiainen which has the root word loppu meaning the end and is commonly considered as the ending day of the Christmas celebrations.

The ending of Christmas is partially true indeed, but the real reason for the celebration is the baptism of the christ. It's also the day when the three wise men of the east are said to have been made their visit, hence also called the day of the three kings.

Like many other Christian holidays the Epiphany also has it roots on much older celebrations. In this case there are many prior days celebrated relating to either the winter solstice for example. It would be nice to think there has also been celebrations for the occurrence of the perihelion, but I doubt the ancient civilisations were that advanced to actually tell the difference in our distance to the sun.