Return policy (Matthew 2:11)

I'm going to try something a little new this year and all it starts this week. There are a lot of holidays based on the Bible, but many people don't really know what's going on. I thought it would be interesting to do a little background check on these misunderstood suspects as they show up. It's important to note that I don't celebrate a lot of the holidays I plan to look into. I'm just a curious researcher. So let me know if I mess one of them up or if there's a special way you celebrate. And without further ado...

Epiphany or Three Kings Day (it may also be known by Eastern Christians as Theophany) occurs on January 6^th or in some countries the Sunday between the 2^nd and the 8^th. (It could also occur on January 19^th depending on if you're using the Gregorian or revised Julian calendar. No wonder holidays confuse people. I haven't even gotten passed the name and date and there's already numerously confusing variations. Let's just simplify, shall we?) For Western Christians it commemorates the Magi visiting baby Jesus. Check out the background story in Matthew 2:1-12. 

MISCONCEPTION CORRECTION: There are so many issues with how we perceive the Magi these days. First off, the Bible gives no mention of how many Magi there were, only that there were three gifts. The traditional names of the Magi (Melchior, Caspar or Gaspar, and Balthasar) come from the Greek manuscript entitled Excerpta Latina Barbari from around 500 A.D. Syrian Christians have a different set of three names which would seem to have a better likelihood of actually being from the “far east.” One last little tidbit, the Magi didn't see Jesus in the manager but arrived several days later after Joseph had found a house to stay in. 

There are many more misconceptions with the Magi, but the problem stuck in my brain is related to their gifts. Mainly that I hope they had gift receipts. The gold we can keep, but don't open the frankincense or myrrh. We'll be returning those. What's the deal with the lame gifts? To be honest, we're not exactly sure, but there are generally two schools of thought:

(1) These presents make up the standard king-issued gift-basket. Gold as a valuable. Frankincense as a perfume. Myrrh as an anointing oil.

(2) These presents had a spiritual or symbolic meaning. Gold representing kingship. Frankincense as an incense representing priesthood. Myrrh as an embalming oil representing death.

As an interesting bit of history, before calendars where commonplace, Epiphany used to be when the priests would announce the date for Easter. That kinda sounds like a religious Groundhog Day. Baby Jesus saw his shadow so Easter will be pushed back a month.

If you don't choke on the trinket in your king cake: