12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS AND STILL COUNTING
Today is the Universal Holy Day of Epiphany.
This reminds me of the many times that Mr. P, Mr. Scheetz and I and sometimes, or at least one time, Mr. Vander Woude would dress up as Melchior, Baltazar and Caspar and very regally go from room to room to tell about our three gifts and to bless the classrooms. Then students helpers would follow with baskets of candy to distribute. It was a very fun day for me, but as the school got bigger it got harder and harder to get to every room in one class period. The majority of students seemed embarrassed for our sakes. Perhaps that was mostly due to our singing.
I am also reminded of the story of the Three Kings that our exchange student from Spain, Sylvia, told us. Sylvia came on an exchange program and was supposed to attend a public school, but for some reason the school decided they couldn’t take her. She had a host family that went to All Saints and called Seton to see if we could take her. Of course we could. Sylvia said that in Spain the Three Kings brought Christmas presents. I am not sure if the Kings came on Christmas Eve or on the Epiphany, but this is how they brought the gifts. The whole town would gather in the evening in the town square which was in a valley. At some point the Kings would be seen riding their white horses down from the hills toward the town. At this same time someone from the family would sneak away to their home and put all the presents under the tree. Meanwhile, everyone else was cheering the coming of the Kings as they rode into town. She said it was such a great time to see those Kings coming and then to go home after they had left and find that they had brought all the gifts for the family.
Seems better than Santa Claus arriving on a fire engine many days before Christmas, which is what Wiggins had as a tradition. His bags of candies and other treats were pretty good though.
We are leaving our Christmas trees (one real and the other not) up until February 2nd. So far no needles are falling from the real one despite my forgetting to give it water for a week. Lent and Easter are far in the future, so the Christmas trees will help to bridge the gap. And the Presentation is our house’s official end to the Christmas season. So Merry Christmas for another 26 days or so.
Jezu, ufam Tobie.