cross-posted from: https://wolfballs.com/post/8286
https://infogalactic.com/info/Epiphany_season
The Epiphany season, also known as Epiphanytide, is in some churches recognized as a liturgical period following the Christmas season (Christmastide).
Until 1955, the feast of the Epiphany in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church had an octave, and was thus celebrated from the vigil Mass on 5 January until 13 January.
So there's some shake-up from a Catholic view, as the Vatican 2 era tried to change some of these things, but some of us are observing the old traditions.
The Epiphany season extends from January 6 to Septuagesima Sunday
So, there's an octave of the Epiphany that lasts for 8 days, then there's the time after Epiphany up until Septuagesima Sunday, which is "70 days before Easter" (but not literally 70 days):
Septuagesima is the ninth Sunday before Easter, the third before Lent known among the Greeks as "Sunday of the Prodigal" from the Gospel, Luke 15, which they read on this day, called also Dominica Circumdederunt by the Latins, from the first word of the Introit of the Mass. In liturgical literature the name "Septuagesima" occurs for the first time in the Gelasian Sacramentary. Why the day (or the week, or the period) has the name Septuagesima, and the next Sunday Sexagesima, etc., is a matter of dispute among writers. It is certainly not the seventieth day before Easter, still less is the next Sunday the sixtieth, fiftieth, etc.
via Catholic encyclopedia: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13721b.htm
The term is sometimes applied also to the period that begins on this day and ends on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, when Lent begins. This period is also known as the pre-Lenten season or Shrovetide.
https://infogalactic.com/info/Septuagesima
"Epiphanytide's" old Gospel readings on Sundays seems to be about the manifestation of the divinity of Jesus, a time of celebration. Then I think it transitions to more of a penitential attitude with "Shrovetide" or the pre-Lenten season.
Finding these things has been nice for giving an extra sense of structure to the season, to me.