Orthodox Christendom in Abkhazia celebrates the Epiphany feast on January 19. The events of the Baptism of Jesus Christ and the appearance of the Holy Trinity, as they are recorded in the Bible, were held with reverence and admiration over the period of the years. With the end of the persecutions, the contents of these events were developed in the observance of the feast of Epiphany which is called the Feast of Lights. The origin of the observance of the celebration of the Epiphany is to be found in the activities of Gnosticism. Its fundamental principle is the idea that individual salvation comes through knowledge, gnosis, rather than through faith or works.

In the Western Church, Epiphany is dedicated to the commemoration of three events: the baptism of Jesus; the visit of the Wisemen to Bethlehem, and the miracle of Cana (the changing of the water into wine), by which the Western Church celebrated the manifestation of Christ to the world and His power to perform miracles.

With the prevailing of the baptism of infants, there is no order of catechumens and consequently the practice of baptism at midnight of January 5th has been eliminated. The sanctification of the Waters, though, has prevailed throughout the centuries; it is now a custom that, on the one hand, the people take sanctified Waters to their homes and on the other hand, some of the Priests visit the homes of their parishioners and reverently sprinkle the homes or fields with sanctified Water.

We have related the details on the origin of the feast of Epiphany and the formation of its ceremonial order, first, to emphasize that this feast is most ancient; secondly, to point out the underlying meaning of Epiphany in the East and the West, and, thirdly, to become familiar with the events which transpired during the original Epiphany.