Wise Women Also Came © Jan L. Richardson
This past year I was delighted to learn of a women’s tradition connected with Epiphany, which falls on January 6 and marks the end of the Christmas season. There is a custom, rooted in Ireland, of celebrating Epiphany as Women’s Christmas, called Nollaig na mBan in Irish. It originated as a day when the women, who carried the domestic responsibilities all year, took Epiphany Day as an occasion to celebrate together and left hearth and home to the men for a few hours. Particularly celebrated in County Cork and County Kerry, the tradition seems to be enjoying a resurgence.
My sweetheart and I, who are celebrating our first Epiphany together in our new home (having married last Spring), share the tending (and sometimes lack of tending) of our home, so I can’t say I’m in particular need of a break from being a domestic diva, which I am not. But still, especially with Advent and Christmas always being an intense time of year for me, I love the idea of ending the season with a celebration such as this.
So, to mark the occasion, I’m joining a group of girlfriends for dinner tomorrow. A couple of them are dear friends whom I haven’t seen in much too long, and the others are friends of theirs who might just be girlfriends-in-the-making for me. As I leave the Christmas season and begin to settle into the rhythms of this new year, I am looking forward to spending an evening in their company.
Here on the eve of Epiphany, I am here to ask you: How might you celebrate your own Women’s Christmas? Tomorrow or some day soon, whom might you connect with for a cup of tea, a festive toast, a meal, or even a phone call? Whose company do you want to share and to celebrate as you cross into this new year?
The “Wise Women Also Came” image above is a collage I created many years ago—one of the first that emerged as I was beginning to discover the artist layer of my soul. I designed it as a card for Epiphany. Some years later, I included the image in my Night Visions book and wrote this poem to accompany it. I offer these women and these words as an Epiphany gift for you.
Wise Women Also Came
Wise women also came.
The fire burned
in their wombs
long before they saw
the flaming star
in the sky.
They walked in shadows,
trusting the path
would open
under the light of the moon.
Wise women also came,
seeking no directions,
no permission
from any king.
They came
by their own authority,
their own desire,
their own longing.
They came in quiet,
spreading no rumors,
sparking no fears
to lead
to innocents’ slaughter,
to their sister Rachel’s
inconsolable lamentations.
Wise women also came,
and they brought
useful gifts:
water for labor’s washing,
fire for warm illumination,
a blanket for swaddling.
Wise women also came,
at least three of them,
holding Mary in the labor,
crying out with her
in the birth pangs,
breathing ancient blessings
into her ear.
Wise women also came,
and they went,
as wise women always do,
home a different way.
For more about Women’s Christmas, visit this article published yesterday in The Irish Times: Go on, have a cuppa tea on Nollaig na Mban. And for my Epiphany reflection at The Painted Prayerbook, see Epiphany: Where the Map Begins.
Many blessings and a Merry Women’s Christmas to you!
[Image and poem © Jan L. Richardson from Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas. “Wise Women” prints and cards available at janrichardson.com.]
Is there some way you can send me this in a printable form, please? I would like to quote your poem during our Epiphany celebration tomorrow. Don’t worry if it gets to me too late, I will simply wait and share it next year. You are an incredibly gifted writer and I am very thankful to friend who turned me onto your blog.
Epiphany blessings,
Marnie Rourke
THANK YOUfor your Epiphany gifts. Though not a woman, I’m married to one (33.5 yrs), am an ardent and outspoken feminist, and am the designated domestic diva within our clergy couple household. Being now retired and spending most of my time within our home, I do and appreciate the multiple tasks that have traditionally be delegated (relegated?) to women. Since my wife has just gone through the “harrowing holiness” of Advent-Epiphany in the life of the congregation she serves, I choose to consider our “wine country respite” less than a week from now our inclusive version of “Nollaig na mBan”!!!
Beautiful artwork and poem, Jan! I enjoyed reading this post. The best part of my Christmas is spending time with my mother and two sisters, both of whom are married with children. The holidays are so busy, and there are so many things to do and places to go, but I like to gather the women in my family together for conversation over the holidays. I guess that’s our way of celebrating “Women’s Christmas.”
Have a busy weekend planned, an out of town meeting. Tomorrow i am taking day off and then going out to eat with my hubby, Tom and our good friends, Barbara and Mike Harper. But I believe I will need to plan a special time with some girlfriends next week. Doreen
Wonderful, wonderful, and wonderful!
I am researching to find all of the women in the Bible and have “found” quite a few I have never seen mentioned elsewhere! I love your poem and the painting! Thank you so much.
What a fabulous poem this is! I had been looking for such a poem for a long, long time.
Thank you.
I became aware of this site only today and I thank you so much. I’m enjoying your art, your thoughts and this new insight into wise women – at the home of the Holy Family, as well as in our life today.
I’m a retired Episcopal priest and have a small congregation that meets in my home in Mexico.
Keep up the good work.
Hello
I have stumbled across your beautiful blog and I just love this poem Wise Women Also Came… I am currently writing a personal post for my own blog and would love to reproduce this poem with credit of course. Would this be OK?
Many thanks
Barbara
Thanks so much, Barbara! Yes, I would be pleased for you to share this poem on your blog. Many kind thanks and blessings to you in this new year!
Thanks Jan… the post I used it in is here…. http://barbarascully.blogspot.com/2012/01/wise-women-of-2011.html
Barbara
x
Re: http://sanctuaryofwomen.com/blog/the-womens-christmas/
Thank you for this, Jan. I found it through a friend’s FB posting.
I have passed the link on to my daughter, “Midwife Mhairi,” because the women here sounded like those in her practice of twelve midwives.
Blessings,
Brian
I smile as I look at the the date of your writing. I was introduced to this reading on December 15, 2016 and I was the reader 2 at our “Worship of God” event and experience. All I will sayis that I have read it several times and allowed it to sink through my self into my soul and spirit. I write this with inspired gratitude today as I post pictures and write my part in the experience again.