Monday, January 6, the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas, is Epiphany, also called Three Kings Day. In some traditions Epiphany is celebrated on the first Sunday after Jan. 1; in the Eastern Orthodox church, still using the Julian calendar which is now 13 days different from the Gregorian, Christmas is on Jan. 7, so Epiphany is twelve days after that, on Jan. 19. Here is the sky for tomorrow evening, Twelfth Night.
See the end note about enlarging illustrations.
The three stars of Orion’s belt, coming up over the eastern horizon, will by the middle of the night be on the meridian. Though their names are Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka, not Caspar, Melchor, and Balthazar, you could take them as the three wise men, or Magi, or kings, who came from the east so that the twelve-day-old child could be “shown off” to them (phainein, the same root as in phainomena).
A long time ago, a friend told me I must come with him to the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, for the first performance of a setting by Harold Darke of “Three Kings from Eastern Lands Afar.” The melody, though long and irregular, stuck in my mind to this day. I wish I could give you its music.
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ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format. You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor. One way: right-click, and choose “View image”, then enlarge. Or choose “Copy image”, then put it on your desktop, then open it. On an iPad or phone, use the finger gesture that enlarges (spreading with two fingers, or tapping and dragging with three fingers). Other methods have been suggested, such as dragging the image to the desktop and opening it in other ways.
This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
Happy 12th day!
Here’s some trivia you may not know.
The bible does not specify how many magi there were. One legend said there were 12 Magi, but the church settled on 3 kings because of the 3 gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh.
Frankincense represents prayer. Like the smoke from incense, we hope our prayer goes up to God and has a pleasing aroma. High priests were called pontifex (latin for bridge builders). The job of a priest was to teach us how to pray so incense was a fitting gift for a priest. Jesus is the ultimate priest or bridge builder since he is both God and man.
Gold was expected as a gift when visiting a king since it was considered the only fitting gift for a king.
Myrrh represents an aromatic spice used to hide the smell of a decaying corpse. It represents that we die with Jesus in order to have eternal life.
Here’s a link to the song you mentioned. You may have to copy and paste it into your browser.
And Betelgeuse, perhaps representing King Herod, has been dimming remarkably in the past month or two. I had vaguely noticed that Betelgeuse seemed a little fainter and paler than usual, but didn’t pay much attention until I read Bob King’s article in Sky and Telescope (Bob must be the fourth king!).
https://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/fainting-betelgeuse/
Was it this Gustav Holst piece that you heard?
https://youtu.be/XSocqhwM6nE
In Anglican usage, Twelfth Night is January 5th, and Epiphany is on January 6th. Thus Christmas Day is the first day of the 12 days of Christmastide and Twelfth Night is the end of the Christmas season. Epiphany inaugurate Epiphanytide which ends on the Tuesday (“Fat or Shrove Tuesday”) before Ash Wednesday. Mileage does vary … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Night_(holiday) .
Is this it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIedUioo_Jk
I’, sire it is, though out of my computer I can’t hear it propely, I’m waiting to hear it in some other way. Thank you.