The Three Kings / die Heiligen Drei Könige

In Austria you frequently see chalk letters and numbers over a doorway that looks something like this: 20-C+M+B-09. It's part of the tradition of the Epiphany or Day of the Three Kings and represents a blessing of the home, complete with holy water, for the coming year. The letters originally represented the Latin phrase Christus mansionem benedicat (Christ bless this home) but now is more commonly known to represent the three kings, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar.

In honor of the three kings, today is another holiday in Austria. The Christmastide (-tide coming from the German word "Zeit" or "time") stretches from Christmas day to the night of January 5/6 and signals the time when the "kings" or astrologers or magi or wise men came to visit the baby Jesus. It seems that popular culture has the wise men showing up minutes after the baby Jesus was born, but according to the story, it took the men (whether it was two or three or four, experts don't seem to know) 12 days to get to Bethlehem. Because it is a holiday (yet another day with no school, no mail, no stores), there was no newspaper this morning, but this political cartoon was in the newspaper yesterday. Obama is still on everyone's minds here, and I find this to be such a great play on the three kings and shepherds and journey to Bethlehem. As the shepherds adore Obama, one of the kings in this cartoon, he says, "Excuse me, people. There is a mistake. I am not the savior!" As the caption says...a star is born, indeed.