Happy New Year 2023, Three Kings Epiphany

Happy New Year to all SSF residents and to the entire earth! The song ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ doesn’t end on December 25, it starts on December 25 , and it keeps on singing until the Feast of the Three Kings who studied astronomy, looking for the star of a supernatural king.

Epiphany is Greek ‘epiphaneia’ meaning “appearance” or “manifestation..”An intense “manifestation of a divine or supernatural being."

Christmas ends with Feast of Epiphany January 6, the Three Kings bearing gifts of frankincense,gold, myrrh to Baby Jesus. They are known as the Magi, where the word magic ‘magic’ comes from; the singular of magi is magus. Each of us has the light spirit hence each of us has magic inside.

Most of us know the Christmas story but I’d like to remind folks about a story mentioning the Magi but you don’t see kings in the story. When I was a little girl my mother told us a story in her local dialect about a young couple who love each other very much but struggles financially. The husband has a gold pocket watch but has no chain ; the wife has beautiful blonde long hair which the husband adores. At Christmas time, the wife thought of buying her husband a gold chain but she only had $1.87. She sold her golden hair for $20 to buy the chain for the watch. Alas, when it was time to exchange gifts , the husband presented her wife a set of elegant combs for her lovely long hair, he found out her hair was short; the wife presented her husband the chain, the husband said he pawned his watch to buy the set of expensive combs. Although the gifts no longer served their purpose, they embraced each other and realized they actually gave their very best gift to each other.

Later I found out it was not my mother’s story but O. Henry (pen name of William Sydney Porter). The Gift of the Magi was published in the New York Sunday World in 1905 and in an anthology The Four Million(1906).

O. Henry had sad stories in his personal life but managed to uplift humanity with inspiring stories. He struggled financially, his wife died of a fatal disease and he was sentenced to prison for embezzlement of funds for five years but was released after three years and three months for good behavior.

When you think about the commercialism of the holidays, remind yourself an excerpt from O. Henry -The Gift of the Magi , epiphany or reveal.

“The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men-who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.”

Please read O. Henri’s stories next holiday when you buy your gifts.