In Scotland the Feast of the Epiphany is celebrated on 2 January 2011. Epiphany is the traditional end of the Christmas season in the Western Church and is traditionally the day when people put away their Christmas decorations. In the Western Church, December 25th was established as the date of Christ's birth and January 6th as the date on which the Wise Men visited him. In the Eastern Church (Orthodox) January 6th was established as the date to observe the birth of Christ.

There are many legends surrounding the Magi but the only biblical reference to them is in the Gospel of Matthew where it is found in Chapter 2, verses 1 – 12. Matthew does not give a number but simply refers to them in the plural. Matthew does describe them as opening their coffers and giving Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Down through history the Magi have been represented in stories, pictures, etc. in varying numbers and not limited to three. The early church in the West portrayed them as being three in number and that is how they appear in our stories and traditions. The number three was probably arrived at because of the three gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh. Many stories and paintings portray the Magi as three with each one presenting one of these gifts. However, Matthew in his Gospel simply states that they opened their coffers and presented the baby Jesus with these three things. Three also made it easy to have them representing each of the three races of the world – African, Asian and European and many paintings, both ancient and modern depict each of them as being of a different race. The Eastern (Orthodox) Church, however, has always depicted the Magi as being twelve in number.