The Vigil of Christmas and Epiphany
January 4, 2022
Our forefathers of the Church, the chiefs of the Councils, have laid down the law that believers should fast on this day until the evening and that they should eat no kind of moist (or, fatty) food whatsoever. Only that kind which is eaten during the Great Fast of Lent.
The holy Apostles commanded in the Canon, saying, “If the festival of the Birth or the festival of the Baptism fall on the Fourth Day of the week, or on the Sixth Day of the week, let them eat in the morning every kind of food which is eaten at Pentecost, for these two festivals are to God, so that men may not imagine that we regale ourselves with the luxuries of this fleeting world. And let us not make our feasts with meats and drink like the festivals of the Jews and pagans.” Therefore our learned fathers of the Church, who were before us, have commanded us to fast these two days, namely, before the festival of the Birth and the festival of the Baptism. And these two days shall take the place of the Fourth Day of the week and the Sixth Day of the week when the festival of the Birth and the festival of the Baptism fall on them, and two matters shall be fulfilled by us, the matter of fasting and the matter of the festival; and this is ordained in the churches of the Egyptians. if the day of Bayramum fall on the First Day of the week, or on the Sabbath of the Jews, one shall fast on the Fourth Day of the week preceding it until the evening, and shall only eat what it is meet to eat during the Great Fast. If the festival of the Birth and the festival of the Baptism fall on the Sabbath, or on the First Day of the week, or on the second day, it is impossible to fast on the day preceding the Sabbath and the First Day of the week, but they shall eat what is eaten during the Great Fast.
On the night of the festival of the Baptism they shall rise up before midnight, and pray over the water and dip themselves in it. The reason why they must rise up before midnight is that the young may not be cast away in the water when they are baptized. And they shall consecrate the Offering before the day dawn, and they shall come into the church very early, even as the Apostles commanded in the holy Canon. The Melchites, if the festival of the Birth and the festival of the Baptism fall on the day before the Sabbath, on the First Day of the week, fast on the sixth day of the week preceding the festival until the ninth hour, according to their frequent custom.
On the day before the Sabbath; and before the First Day of the week, they ordain the consecration (of the Eucharist), at the third hour or earlier, they eat a young . . . and drink if they wish. Then the priests sit in the church, and pray the prayer of the hours, and read the prophecy which is suitable for the festival. They pray over the water at the time of evening on that day, which is the tenth day of the month of Ter. But this is not according to what the Apostles commanded in the holy Canon, for the pure Apostles commanded them to keep the festival of the Epiphany, which is, being interpreted, the “appearance of our God” on the seventh day of the month of Ter. The Melchites transgress the command of the holy fathers, the doctors of the Church, and they eat on the day of the festival, in the morning if it fall on the Fourth or the Sixth Day of the week, and they do not fast on the day before it instead of it. As for us, we ask our Lord Christ to cleanse us from all our sins, and to reveal the glory of His Godhead in our hearts even as He revealed it in the River Jordan–to Him be glory.
Source: The Ethiopian Synazarium 274-275
