Today is "Three Kings Day". The bakeries all bake a special round bread for today and in each loaf a small "king" can be found. The one who finds the king gets to wear the crown (also included with the bread but made from paper!) for the day.
Also on this day,
Sternsinger (star singers) dress up as the three wise men and go around to people's houses singing songs and collecting money for charity. The money is used to help children in need. If you donate, they will write in chalk " C+M+B" and the year on your doorway. Many people think that this stands for the names of the three wise men, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, but it's actually "Christus Mansionem Benedicat" which means "Jesus bless this house."
Until this year, I did not know what the numbers and letters chalked above the doorways meant. We have asked many people and one thing we were told is that it is part of a census carried out by the Catholic church. When I looked up
Dreikönigstag on the internet I finally discovered what this strange letter and number combination really meant. How intriguing. Just last night we happened upon a German documentary about this very event as they filmed a small group of young people going from house to house, singing and collecting money for unfortunate children. Last year over 4 million Euros were collected for this cause. We have lived in Germany for 10 years and continue to learn new things about this culture!
Also on this day, Sternsinger (star singers) dress up as the three wise men and go around to people's houses singing songs and collecting money for charity. The money is used to help children in need. If you donate, they will write in chalk " C+M+B" and the year on your doorway. Many people think that this stands for the names of the three wise men, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, but it's actually "Christus Mansionem Benedicat" which means "Jesus bless this house."
Until this year, I did not know what the numbers and letters chalked above the doorways meant. We have asked many people and one thing we were told is that it is part of a census carried out by the Catholic church. When I looked up Dreikönigstag on the internet I finally discovered what this strange letter and number combination really meant. How intriguing. Just last night we happened upon a German documentary about this very event as they filmed a small group of young people going from house to house, singing and collecting money for unfortunate children. Last year over 4 million Euros were collected for this cause. We have lived in Germany for 10 years and continue to learn new things about this culture!
3 comments:
I enjoyed the education. Although, I did remember that today is "three kings day" b/c when i was a child, we never attended school on the 6th and stayed home and went to church and the day was treated like a Sunday.
I too remember the holiday as a child. Regarding your pic, how come the 20 is before the letters, and the 04 after the pics? Just curious.
This is picture is from 2004 which is why the number is 2004:
20+C+M+B+04. It took me while to decipher the code too!
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