Happy Twelveth Day of Christmas!
Happy Kings Day!
Happy Epiphany!
Today around the world we celebrate the arrival of the Magi, Wise men, or Kings arriving at the house of the Baby Jesus and bringing him gifts.
This is a very big holiday in some parts of the world like Mexico, Spain, most of the Spanish speaking world and Italy.
The kids and I had so much fun watching little clips of different celebrations from around the world on SnapChat.
Yes. I said SnapChat.
I know it sounds crazy but there was this little button that you could click on and it showed you lots of little clips of people around the world celebrating.
We saw parades.
Mass with Wisemen coming down the aisle to bring gifts.
KINGS CAKE!
We are totally making Kings cake next year.
There were also some fun clips on Instagram and Twitter if you check out the hashtag #Epiphany.
Make the technology work for you and make it fun.
The kids really enjoyed watching it all.
There was one clip from Spanish Harlem and Rosie was excited that "Hey! They are speaking our language."
Many Catholics around the world do a house blessing on Epiphany.
All you need for this house blessing is:
The Blessing (I printed mine from HolyHeros.com)
Some Holy Water
and blessed chalk
(I'm sure regular chalk would work too, but it's so much more fun asking your priest to bless a piece of chalk. I keep mine in my jewelry box and reuse it every year)
Then you get everyone together... say a little prayer and blessing and write
20+C+M+B+16
above your door
The 20 and the 16 are for the current year and the letters C, M and B stand for
Christus Mansionem Benedicat, which is Latin for "May Christ bless this home."
They are also the initials for the traditional names of the three wisemen.
Balthasar of Arabia, Melchior of Persia, and Gaspar of India.
(Traditional. Not factual. We don't actually know their names. But these are fun to say).
Balthasar is our favorite... we just like saying it.
Obi is the official Holy Water distributor.
He splashed it all over the door.
In many parts of the world children leave their shoes under the tree and receive a gift from the Kings as they pass by on their way to Bethlehem to see Jesus. We didn't do the shoes this year but there was a gift under the tree! Obi was very excited to discover it.
It was a 3D puzzle that we can all do together this weekend.
Rosie declared the Kings must be still alive.
I tried to explain traditions and that weren't but I was out voted.
"Nope. I think they're still alive. That's more fun. "
I've always loved Kings Day.
I love that one last day of gifts before the Christmas season comes to a close.
Also, I didn't realize this until I became Catholic but the Kings or Magi were the first non Jewish people to honor Jesus and so they represent God's gift of mercy to the whole world.
I thought I'd share a couple pictures of our nativity. The kids had fun setting it up and decided the nutcrackers should be there to guard the baby Jesus.
Thank you so much for celebrating the entire month of December and the 12 Days of Christmas with me. I enjoyed blogging again.
I hope you have a wonderful year and that the joy and peace of Christmas is in your heart and home all year long.
Merry Christmas!!
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