Tomorrow is Twelfth Night........

Twelfth Night is traditionally the time when the Wise Men, or Kings or Magi arrived on the scene, and this marks the end of the season of Christmas,and the start of the churches season of Epiphany. It is the day on which the Wise Men were guided by a star to the stable in Bethlehem.

I don't know if you have ever pondered the words of the carol We Three Kings, but nowhere in the bible accounts of the story does it give us an actual number. What is given is that they brought three gifts - gold, frankincence and myrrh. In a different account the kings are named as Caspar, Melchior & Balthazzar, which quite neatly fits in with the three gifts

Did you know that it is traditional to stir a Christmas pudding mixture from east to west in honour of the Wise Men, who travelled in the same direction?

In Spain children leave their shoes hanging out on Twelfth Night in the hope that the Wise Men will fill them with gifts, as they pass by!