Eve of Theophany

The feast of Theophany, to which this eve belongs, likely arose in the Greek-speaking eastern Roman Empire as a commemoration of the Baptism of Jesus. Around 200 CE, Clement of Alexandria recorded that followers of the Gnostic teacher Basilides observed "the day of His Baptism," spending the previous night in readings — an early witness to the practice of a vigil of readings on the eve, and to dates corresponding to January 6 and 10.

The earliest ecclesiastical reference to the feast appears in 361 CE in the writings of Ammianus Marcellinus, where the holiday is listed twice, suggesting a double feast of Baptism and Nativity. By the fifth century, Egyptian monasteries under St. John Cassian still celebrated both the Nativity and the Baptism together on January 6. When Nativity and Theophany were later distinguished as separate feasts, Theophany retained the Baptism as its principal commemoration, and its eve developed as the day of preparatory fasting and readings.

The blessing of water associated with the feast is documented early: the Church attributes to St. John Chrysostom a testimony that the holy water blessed at this feast does not corrupt. The Council of Saragossa (381) referenced fasting during this season, and by 400 CE civil law ranked Epiphany among the major festivals alongside Easter and Pentecost, prohibiting circus performances on the day.

In present Orthodox practice, the Royal Hours are read on the eve and the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great is served with Vespers, at which the Great Blessing of Waters is performed. When Theophany falls on a Sunday or Monday, the Royal Hours are instead chanted on the previous Friday, and on the Paramony the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is celebrated in the morning.

The feast the eve prepares for commemorates the manifestation of Christ to the world — in the Eastern tradition, the shining forth and revelation of Jesus as the Messiah at the Jordan. The Church remembers the Baptism as one of only two occasions on which all three Persons of the Holy Trinity manifested themselves simultaneously to humanity: God the Father speaking, God the Son being baptized, and God the Holy Spirit appearing as a dove. The other such occasion was the Transfiguration.

The Great Blessing of Waters, first celebrated on the eve, expresses the Orthodox belief that creation itself is sanctified through Christ. The service teaches that through his own Baptism Christ lifted the curse of Adam's sin and restored the creative goodness of God's creation to mankind. Water, understood as the prime element of creation, is revealed in its original purpose as a source of life, blessing, and holiness. The Church teaches that holy water so blessed differs from ordinary water by the incorruptibility bestowed on it, a transformation of its very nature.

Orthodox tradition also holds that the Baptism of Christ was the first step toward the Crucifixion, and the hymns of Theophany carry liturgical parallels to the observances of Good Friday. The eve's strict fast and its didactic readings and homilies frame the coming feast as both a revelation of the Trinity and a movement toward the saving Passion.

The eve has long been a day of theological instruction: patristic homilies survive for the day preceding Theophany, including a homily of St. Basil the Great, a homily of St. Gregory Palamas on Baptism and Repentance, and a homily of St. John Maximovitch before the blessing of the waters — attesting to an ancient tradition of preparation and teaching specifically on the Paramony.

The services of the eve include special antiphons chanted at the Vesperal Liturgy, together with fifteen Old Testament lections that foreshadow the Baptism of Christ. The Great Blessing of Waters incorporates a procession with the singing of appropriate hymns and troparia, Scripture readings culminating in the baptism account from Mark's Gospel, the Great Litany with petitions requesting sanctification, healing, and protection, and lengthy didactic prayers summarizing salvation history.

The Church's practice on the eve is a strict one-day fast (xerophagy), the exception to the otherwise fast-free Twelve Days between the Nativity and Theophany. Those faithful who are physically able refrain from food until the first star is observed in the evening, when a meal with wine and oil may be taken. In practice the fast is kept until the Royal Hours, the Vesperal Liturgy, and the Great Blessing of Waters have been completed.

The Great Blessing of Waters is celebrated on the eve inside churches at the baptismal font, and again on the feast day itself, often outdoors at a body of living water where the priest casts a cross into the water; many parishes perform the blessing only once, when most of the faithful can be present.

The faithful collect the newly-blessed holy water to take home.

During the Theophany season, priests visit parishioners' homes to pray prayers of blessing over families, homes, and animals, sprinkling them with the blessed water.

• Mark 1:9-11 — The account of the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan, read as the culmination of the Great Blessing of Waters.