Twelfth Night

Tonight is Twelfth Night.  The Christmas season is twelve days long, as anyone who listened to even an hour of a 24/7 Christmas music radio station last month knows.  "The Twelve Days of Christmas," and its various variations, gets played over and over again.  Well... tonight is the twelfth night of Christmas.  In my family it's the night that we pray for God's blessings upon our house. 

We have claimed as our own an eastern European tradition of doing a yearly house blessing either at the time of Twelfth Night or Epiphany, which is January 6.  On Epiphany we celebrate the arrival of the wise men from the east to Bethlehem as it is described in Matthew 2.  They follow the star and after a conversation with King Herod they go to the house where Mary and the child Jesus are staying.  They give this new king gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Tradition says that these wise men were kings by the names of Casper, Melchior and Balthasar.  The blessing that is done over the main doorway of the home reflects this by using the first letter of each of their names: C M B.  In Latin the letters "C M B" also stand for words of blessing: Christus Mansionem Benedicat meaning "Christ bless this home."

Standing on a stool at the doorway this blessing is done, using chalk: 
The magi of old, known as
C   Caspar,
M   Melchior, and
B   Balthasar
followed the star of God's Son who came to dwell among us
20   two thousand
13   and thirteen years ago.
+   Christ, bless this house,
+   and remain with us throughout the new year.

in the end the blessing looks like this:

20 + C M B + 13

Afterwards, using a small branch from an evergreen tree, possibly the Christmas tree, you sprinkle water in each room, asking for God's blessings to be upon the whole household.

Its a beautiful blessing to do with children and those letters and numbers in chalk remind you throughout the year that Christ does bless your home and blesses you.  God is with you always.

What a nice tradition to end the Christmas season with.