Heilige Drei Köinge translates to three Kings day, or literally means the Epiphany. This year the day fell on Sunday January 6, 2008. In Germany children dressed as the three kings walk throughout the villages and bless homes by sprinkling holy water on the doorway and marking in chalk on the house: 20 C+M+B 08. The initials are believed to represent the names of the three kings, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar; the numbers represent the year the blessing was done. There is also a belief that holds the initials come from the Latin phrase for "Christ bless this house" -- "Christus mansionem benedicat".Either way the tradition is still practiced and we were delighted to come home and see that despite the fact that we were not home, and despite that fact we do not have a brick home to "chalk the house", and despite that fact that we did not make the customary monetary doanation to the church........our house was still blessed as you can see by the markings on our mailbox. All indications point to a blessed year.
love and miss you all
3 comments:
What a great feeling to have your space blessed. I do remember Mom and Dad having our home blessed and how I felt great that was taken care of!!! Great info!
lycb
Welcome back! Due to a hard drive crash we too have been at a technological disadvantage, you are my first go at re-connecting....so wonderful to hear you are up and running, we missed this. To have your house blessed by a child, that is incredibly special, it may even trump a priests blessing! (Sorry Mom!) Love you guys-ct
Nice to know you don't have to be home to have the house blessed. That sounds like a pretty cool tradition.....the only writing I usually see on houses or mailboxes is graffiti!!
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