Twelfth-day of Christmas - ROSES AND THORNS by Alejandro R. Roces

Today is the twelfth-day of Christmas, a day that used to be popularly commemorated as the Feast of the Three Kings. During the Spanish times, Christmas gifts were not exchanged during Christmas. They were given during the Feast of the Three Kings for it was then that the three wise men from the east presented Jesus with his first gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh. After the coming of the Americans, Santa Claus replaced the Three Kings and gifts were presented during Christmas.

Today, the Christmas season still officially ends on the Feast of the Three Kings, known officially as the Epiphany, a Greek word meaning "manifestation," because it was when Christ was first made known to the world as the Messiah, the divine sign of God. But it is no longer celebrated on January 6, but on the first Sunday after New Year, which this year falls tomorrow. So tomorrow, we will be commemorating The Epiphany or the thirteenth day that marks the end of Christmas.

The Feast of the Three Kings was based on pure myth. It is based on a biblical account that is mentioned only in the Gospel according to Matthew. All he said was that when Christ was born, the magi came from the East to pay homage to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. Magi is the Latin plural of Magus, literally wise men. Matthew did not say they were Kings, nor did he say that they were three. Later, people assumed that they were three because there are three gifts – gold, the emblem of royalty; frankincense, in token of divinity; and myrrh, in prophetic allusion to the persecution till death that awaited the "Man of Sorrows." Medieval legend called them the Three Kings of Cologne and the cathedral there claims that it has their relics. In the 18th century, they were provided with names: Melchor, which means "King of light"; Gaspar, meaning "the white one"; and Baltazar that connotes "the lord of treasures."

It is to erase the above myths that the Church replaced the Feast of the Three Kings with The Epiphany. Today, the old Three Kings tradition survives in the Casino Español, where since its inception three club members portraying the Three Kings distribute gifts to children. And to this day, no Christmas depiction of the Nativity is complete without the images of the Three Kings. Myths die hard.

As for the star of Bethlehem that guided the Three Magi to Bethlehem, the most interesting theory so far is that it was a double eclipse of Jupiter and not a dazzling star as recorded by the New Testament. This is the theory advanced by Michael Melnar, who linked astronomical events at the time of Christ to astrological symbolisms on Roman coins. This was reported by New Scientist magazine. According to Owen Gingerich of the Harvard - Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, it is the best and most original explanation he has come across.

The story of the Three Magi still captures the curiosity of scholars and scientists everywhere.