When to Celebrate Epiphany?

I’ve looked down my nose on those churches that do not celebrate feasts on their proper God-ordained dates. coughRomanscough  But today’s date of the Feast of the Epiphany on a Monday is awkward for my small parish.  We wanted to celebrate the 2^nd Sunday after Christmas as those do not come around every year.  We knew that almost no one would come on a cold Monday night.  (And it is indeed bitter out there by South Texas standards.)  Celebrating it next Sunday would be a bit of a stretch and would cause us to bypass the 1^st Sunday after Epiphany.

So what the Rector decided is to celebrate the Epiphany during our regular Wednesday night service.  And that seems sensible to me as well.  Some do not like octaves.  But one advantage of them is that one can celebrate a major feast for a week.  Or at least that’s our excuse.

If we were a larger parish, I would have preferred today.  But we are not.  It’s better to do it when a few more are likely to come.