Epiphany 2017

Happy Epiphany to everyone!

We had an absolutely delightful Epiphany service with our 4th and 5th graders yesterday from our local elementary school, and I just wanted to share a few glimpses with you.

Instead of telling the story of the Three Kings, we decided to focus on the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, and why the Three Kings presented them to Baby Jesus.

We began by asking the children what they would have given Baby Jesus. Answers ranged from things like toys and pacifiers to medicine and love. Then, we showed the children examples of the gifts and explained the meanings behind them.  The church we were in has just been restored and there is a beautiful golden star on the ceiling that served as visual of the gold that foretold Jesus' kingship. I burned some frankincense, the symbol of Jesus' priesthood,  near the altar, and a colleague passed around a bottle of myrrh preparation, a symbol of Jesus' humanity,  from the local pharmacy. 

As a response, the children could write down what they wanted to give Jesus, and wrap it in a small parcel to lay in the manger. 

I love seeing children moving about in the church as if it's their second home. 

Usually our services are for 1-3 graders, but we decided to offer something for the older children as an experiment to see if they would actually come. Thirty-six children attended, so I look forward to more services with this age group!

Epiphany 2014

Epiphany fell on a Monday this year, so we celebrated quietly at home after school. 

Epiphany helps us to officially close the Christmas season, although the story and meaning of Christmas is still very much present in my thoughts right now. 

We began by dry felting an Epiphany bunting for our nature table window.

Then, we baked our Galette de Rois, a Epiphany cake (you can find a link to the recipe here), and hid a pistachio in it. My son, who ate the piece with the pistachio in it, gets to choose a special family activity to do this weekend.

Then, we read the story of the Magi visiting the Christ Child from the children's Bible. After some "Wondering" about the gifts of the Magi, God's gifts to us and our gifts to him, my daughter arranged the pictures of gold, frankencense and myrrh on the nature table. They'll stay there the rest of this week.

For some lovely other Epiphany celebrations, please read what Hilary and Emily's families did as well: 

Featherglen

Watkins Every Flavor Beans

Godly Play: Epiphany + Link-Up

Epiphany has become a special day for me. I didn't grow up celebrating it, and actually didn't know what it was until I was an adult. It is a wonderful way to bring closure to the 12 Days of Christmas (although many churches celebrate one week longer, see Catholic Icing's post on this), and celebrate the revelation of Jesus as the Messiah to the whole world.

Materials from the Godly Play Epiphany story

The word "Epiphany" comes from the Greek and means "manifestation" or "appearance". While Eastern churches focus on the baptism of Jesus at Epiphany, Western churches bring attention to the visit of the Magi to child Jesus. Both stories point to God's physical manifestation in Jesus, but in the Magi story we also remember that Jesus was revealed to the Gentiles as well.

Our project did not hold services this week, so I planned a special family service for our kids. Early this morning, the kids and I got up to bake a "La Galette des Rois", a French King's Cake made of puff pastry and filled with frangipane. We used this easy recipe here and added vanilla and lemon zest to it.

Before baking . . . We used a cookie cutter
to make a star in the center.

A "bean" or small figure is traditionally placed inside the cake and whoever gets that piece is "king" for a day. (The Louisiana Mardi Gras cake developed from this tradition.) We placed a plastic Wise Man inside ours. Since it was made of plastic, I wrapped it in tin foil to hopefully avoid any toxins leaking into the cake!

Brushing egg yolk onto the puff pastry.

A golden brown delight!

Later that morning, I told the Godly Play Epiphany story during our family service. This story recaps the journey to Bethlehem in the Advent story and then focuses attention on the three gifts that the Magi brought. Since I was not able to acquire frankincense and myrrh this year, I printed out pictures on the internet and pasted them on gold card stock so that the children could actually see what they look like. (You can the images them here: gold, frankincense and myrrh.)

The whole story laid out.

Cards for gold, frankincense,
and myrrh.

This story does not have any official Wondering, but I felt that my children needed something to help them ponder the gifts more. So I added the following questions:

I wonder which gift is your favorite?

I wonder which gift you think is the most important?

What gift would you give to the child Jesus?

This turned out to be one of the most fun Wondering times that I have ever had with my own kids. Between the second and third question, one of the kids wondered aloud what the gifts might have been for. My son thought that there might be some connection between three gifts and the three members of the Trinity. He went on to say that gold could be for the Father, because gold is a gift for kings; that myrrh could be for Jesus, since it was used for funerals and Jesus would die someday; and that frankincense was like the Holy Spirit, because it was used in worship and released a smell that was unseen. I think he might have been drawing a connection there with the Baptism story, because in it we speak of the Holy  Spirit as being "invisible like the scent of oil". 

My daughter, who usually does more silent wondering when it's just the four of us, was quite talkative today. She wondered aloud about the myrrh and went to the bookshelf, where she pulled out a book with the story of Jesus being anointed by the woman in Simon's house. She pointed to the nard and wanted to know if it was like myrrh. Also, when asked what she would give the child Jesus as a present, she said, "I would draw him a picture of me, so that he could see me all the time.": )

And then we came the Feast, which everyone was particularly excited about because of the King Cake. I reminded the kids of the tradition that the person who finds the plastic king in their cake is King for a day. I was met with replies like, "Yeah, I want to get it so I can order Dad around!" I suggested that maybe we should think about being a king like Jesus was king and that started some more wondering. As it turns out, no one got a piece with the king in it, so we'll have to wait until tomorrow (when we have room for some more cake) to see who will be King for a day . . . 

One piece is enough as this cake is quite filling!

Linked to Montessori Monday at Living Montessori Now

and Eco-Kids Tuesdays at Like Mama-Like Daughter and Organic Aspirations

and Waldorf Wednesday at Seasons of Joy

And now for last Exploring Christmas Link-Up! I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all of your wonderful ideas. If you are joining us for the first time today, maybe you will find some ideas for next year.

If you participate, please link back to Explore and Express. Feel free to grab the button below or in the side bar. 

By participating in the link party, you give me permission to share your photos in future highlights.

Please do not link giveaways or advertisements for commercial items. Thanks!

Epiphany

Last Sunday we celebrated Ephiphany with the children in our church plant.  (The official feast day is on January 6 in Germany, but we didn’t have services on this day.)  The children have, of course, heard the story of the Three Wise Men many times during Advent. The Godly Play story for Epiphany stresses that Jesus was a king like no other and allows the children to ponder the meanings of the gifts. Although gold was a fitting gift for a king, frankincense and myrrh were unusual gifts because Jesus was an unusual king. 

I also added some “wondering questions” for the children at the end to help them explore the Three Kings’ spiritual journey and revelation.  How do you think the Three Wise Men felt when they finally reached the stable where Baby Jesus lay?  Do you think they found what they had expected to find?  Which of the three gifts do you like the best and why?

For the creative phase, the children could either choose to pick out their own art materials and work freely or they could work on an “angeleitet” (instructional) art project.  Below is the project that I presented.  It is a simple piece that came to me when I was out jogging and ran past an art gallery in our neighborhood with negative space paintings.  I chose the star as a symbol of God’s revelation that often comes after a long spiritual journey.  I left it white as a metaphor for revelation being an empty or blank place in us that God fills. 

 

A 3-year-old working on her project.

To paint this project:

1. Give the children a star pattern to trace or allow them to draw their own in the center of the page. 
2. Using a ruler, have them draw straight lines wherever they choose from the outside of the star to the edge of the paper, dividing the paper into quadrants.
3. Ask the children to choose 2 “cool” colors and 2 “warm” colors (after explaining what this means) and paint the quadrants.
4. The children may then fill the quadrants however they choose either with designs or pictures.

This is from a child who chose to work freely.

A normal Godly Play worship service does not usually include Montessori motor skill exercises, but because we have 3 and 4-year-olds in our services, I like to include some to help them further think about what they have heard and to help them in a practical way. Because the Godly Play story deals with the gifts that the Wise Men brought, I had the children practice wrapping gifts. I had planned to do this before Christmas, but couldn’t come up with enough small boxes to do it.  Then I saw on Leptir that Nataša had used wooden blocks and I thought this was an excellent idea! 

The tray with the materials. 

 

Maybe these ideas will help someone next year!