The Circumcision. This festival was originally called Octava Domini, and hence it may be inferred that it was not an independent festival and passed unnoticed if it fell on a week day.  Thus, in the Homilarium of Charlemagne (786) it is referred to by this name.  But very shortly after this, the name which we now use for the festival of the 1st January was used in Rome, and spread through the Church.  In the early days of Christianity the first day of the civil year was given over to rejoicings, dancing, feasting and rioting.  And these abuses lingered in France, though stripped of their pagan character, until the later middle ages.  A remnant of them is found in the so-called Feast of Fools, which was held in churches, and which mocked several religious customs and ceremonies.  These feasts lasted till the middle of the fifteenth century.

Epiphany.  The name is derived from a Greek verb employed to describe the dawn, and the adjective derived from the Greek verb was applied in classic Greek, to the appearances of the gods bringing help to men.  In Christian liturgy, the feast was instituted to celebrate the appearance, the manifestation of Christ, to the Gentiles, in the persons of the Magi.  In later times, there were added to this commemoration of Christ’s manifestation to the Gentiles, two further commemorations of his wonderful showings of His divine mission, viz., His manifestation in His baptism in the Jordan, a manifestation to the Jews, and His miracle at Cana, a showing forth to His friends and disciples.  This feast is of early origin.  Suarez thinks it should be attributed to the Apostles (De Relig.  L.2. ch.5, n.9); and Benedict XIV. held that it was established by the infant Church at Rome to draw off the Christians from the profane and sinful revelry which marked the pagan feast of this date.  However, these statements are hardly accurate.  “With regard to the antiquity and spread of the feast, it was unknown in North Africa during the third century, for Tertullian makes no reference to it; and even in the time of St. Augustine, it was rejected by the Donatists as an oriental novelty.  In Origen’s time, at least, it was not generally observed as a festival in Alexandria, since he does not reckon it as such.  For Rome, evidence is wanting for the earliest times, but since the daughter Church of Africa knew nothing—­of the festival at first, it may be inferred that originally it was not kept at Rome, but was introduced there in course of time.  In Spain it was a feast-day in 380, in Gaul in 361 ...” (Kellner, op. cit., p.172).