Who are the three holy kings?
Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar are known as the Three Holy Kings in the Christian history. They were from the Middle East and were acknowledged scientists especially in the field of astrology. As such they couldn’t miss the presence of the new beautifully shining star on the sky, which meaning was later linked to a very special and extraordinary event. This event was the birth of Christ. In the Gospel of Matthew, it’s written that they travelled the whole way from the East to honor the newborn.
What’s the actual meaning of the holiday?
Although this holiday is named in the most countries after the three holy kings, on this day (06.01) we celebrate the divinity of Jesus.
In some Christian-orthodox countries (Spain, Russia) this day it’s considered as Christmas in the sense of family holiday with gift-exchange, because they are oriented after the Gregorian calendar.
What traditions characterize the festival?
The carol singing is the most widely spread tradition, which was determined back in the 16th century. At that time, the house was blessed with a painted on the door crucifix. In the 18th century the tradition was no more taken that seriously. Instead of songs about the life of Christ, they started to sing sermons in psalms form. Towards the end of the 19th century the tradition became an anachronism till in 1959 it was revived in Germany by refugees from Silesia.
Nowadays instead of small gifts, the young carol singers usually get a small donation that afterwards it’s always dedicated to a good cause (for example supporting projects in third world countries). In exchange, the following letters are written at the door of the donor: C, M, and B. These stand for “Christus mansionem benedicat”, which means “Christ bless this house”. Thanks to this spell, the evil will remain far away from the house or the apartment. C, M, and B could be also interpreted as the initial letters of the names of the three holy kings. Correspondingly C stands for Caspar (Persian: Guardian of the Treasure), M for Melchior (Hebrew: My King is the light) and B for Balthasar (Babylonian: God protects the life).
