The reason its traditional to eat kolkassia aka olass (or named malanga in market) on the feast of the Theopany is it symbolic of St. John the Baptist or more accurately his head. It is roughly round, the size of a head, and hairy; so one could see the parrallel between it and a human head. I did not make this up, it was told to me by a wise old sage (maybe the person wasn’t a sage and maybe not so wise but the person was definitely old). This sort of ties in to a traditional saying/superstition for the feast “Whoever does not eat kolkassia on the feast of the Theophany will wake up without a head” (Okay it looses something in the translation; it rhymes in Arabic)
Happy Theophany (or is it Merry Theophany)
Not So Spiritual Words 