Epiphany, epiphany, Eureka!

Today is Epiphany.  It is a Christian festival commemorating in the eastern Church the baptism of Jesus, and in the western Church the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles in the Visit of the Magi.  The festival or holiday (“holy day”) is preceded by The Twelve Days of Christmas.  Many traditions have developed around Epiphany (similar to what we do at Christmastime).  This morning my daughter-in-law and granddaughter introduced me to one of these traditions via a Facebook post.  Have you ever heard of Befana?  Befana is an old woman who delivers gifts to children throughout Italy on Epiphany Eve (Twelfth Night).  According to the Facebook post,  granddaughter Eleni no longer believes in Santa Claus, but she is smart enough to tell her mother she still believes in Old Befana.

I’m not so much interested in Epiphany with a capital letter these days.  I’m much more interested and attentive to epiphanies beginning with a small letter.  The word “epiphany” beginning with a small letter “e” means “a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.”  Someone has said, “Epiphanies awaken the soul.”  

What good is it that Jesus was baptized and I am not?  An epiphany is a kind of baptism—an immersion and then a coming up out of the water with a whole new understanding of things.   I like to use another word that starts with a capital “E” to explain what I mean by an epiphany—Eureka!  Eureka was the word Archimedes is reputed to have used when, after long study, he discovered a method of detecting the amount of alloy mixed with the gold in the crown of the king of Syracuse.   I've always imagined old Archimedes sitting in a hot bath when his epiphany occurred. “Eureka” is an exclamation of triumph at some new discovery or insight (some epiphany).

Annie Dillard, in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, experienced and wrote about her many “Eureka” or “epiphany” moments with nature.  Wow!  Eureka!  “Do you know,” she wrote, “that in the head of the caterpillar of the ordinary goat moth there are two hundred twenty-eight separate muscles?”  Eureka moments and epiphany moments are one and the same in my thinking.  I’d much rather experience an epiphany moment today and shout “Eureka”  than I would ruminate on, or celebrate the Epiphany Festival in the life of the Church and sing “We Three Kings of Orient Are.”

Eureka!!!