posted January 09, 2018 11:13 PM
I'm going to slip in one more Christmas song...
People in our neighborhood (Spanish) used up the last of their strong fireworks last night, commemorating the "Feast of The Magi's visit to The Child." 
(music) What Child Is This? (Chris Tomlin, perf by All Sons & Daughters, lyrics, w guitar chords) [2:47] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jroBAl3WW8
There is some excellent information on this website.
- http://www.fisheaters.com/epiphanyeve.html
You'll find customs.. dramatic reading scripts, food recipes, words to ancient carols, and music links.
Excerpts below are all quotes -------
The Magi and Their Gifts
Typified in the Old Testament
by the Queen of Saba (Sheba),
who entered Jerusalem
"with a great train, and riches, and camels that carried spices, and an immense quantity of gold, and precious stones"
in order to ascertain King Solomon's greatness (III Kings 10),
the three Magi
entered Jerusalem
bearing gold, frankincense, and myrrh
for the newborn King.
The Fathers see in their gifts omens of Christ's life:
The Gold
as a sign of His Kingship.
The gifts of gold and frankincense
were both prophesied by Isaias
in the sixth chapter of his book.
The Frankincense --
a gum resin (i.e., dried tree sap) from the Boswellia tree,
native to Somalia and southern coastal Arabia --
as a sign of His Deity.
Mixed with stacte, and onycha, and sweet galbanum,
it was used by Moses to set before the tabernacle as an offering to God,
and was considered so "holy to the Lord" that it was forbidden to use profanely
(see Numbers 30).
The Myrrh --
a brownish gum resin from the Commiphora abyssinica tree,
native to eastern Africa and Arabia,
and used in embalming --
as a sign of His death.
Myrrh, along with cinnamon and cassius,
was used by Moses to "anoint the tabernacle of the testimony, and the ark of the testament"
(Numbers 30).
It has analgesic properties, too,
and was offered, mixed with wine, to Christ on the Cross, which He refused
(Mark 15:23).
Nicodemus brought myrrh to annoint Our Lord's Body after death
(John 19:39).
The Golden Legend, written in A.D. 1275
by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa,
describes the gifts thus:
...by these three be signified
three things that be in Jesu Christ:
The precious Deity,
the soul full of holiness,
and the entire Flesh all pure and without corruption.
...And these three things be signified
that were in the ark of Moses.
* The rod which flourished,
that was the Flesh of Jesu Christ
that rose from death to life;
* the tables
wherein the commandments were written,
that is the soul,
wherein be all the treasures of sapience and science of Godhead.
* The manna
signifieth the Godhead,
which hath all sweetness of suavity.
* By the gold
which is most precious of all metals
is understood the Deity;
* by the incense
the soul right devout,
for the incense signifieth
devotion and orison;
* by the myrrh
which preserveth from corruption,
is understood
the Flesh which was without corruption.
> Poetry-----
The Journey of the Magi
by T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)
'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For the journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins,
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death,
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.
-- http://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Eliot,_T.S.
This author provides an interesting turn, and point of view---
St. Augustine (b. 354),
in his Contra Faustum, Book II,
had this to say to those who believe the Star of Bethlehem was a natural occurrence,
or that it was detected by means of astrology:
{quote within quote}
We, too, deny the influence of the stars upon the birth of any man;
for we maintain that, by the just law of God, the free-will of man, which chooses good or evil, is under no constraint of necessity.
How much less do we subject to any constellation the incarnation of the eternal Creator and Lord of all!
When Christ was born after the flesh,
the star which the Magi saw
had no power as governing,
but attended as a witness.
Instead of assuming control over Him,
it acknowledged Him by the homage it did.
Besides, this star was not one of those which from the beginning of the world continue in the course ordained by the Creator.
Along with the new birth from the Virgin appeared a new star,
which served as a guide to the Magi
who were themselves seeking for Christ;
for it went before them till they reached the place where they found the Word of God in the form of a child.
But what astrologer ever thought of making a star leave its course, and come down to the child that is born, as they imagine, under it?
They think that the stars affect the birth, not that 'the birth' changes the course of the stars;
so, if the star in the Gospel was one of those heavenly bodies, how could it determine Christ's action, when it was compelled to change its own action at Christ's birth?
But if, as is more likely,
a star [which did not exist before] appeared to point out Christ,
it was 'the effect of' Christ's birth,
and not the cause of it.
Christ was not born because the star was there; but the star was there because Christ was born.
If there was any fate,
it was in the birth, and not in the star.
The word fate is derived from a word which means to speak;
and since Christ is the Word of God by which all things were spoken before they were,
the conjunction of stars is not the fate of Christ,
but Christ is the fate of the stars.
The same Will that made the heavens, took our earthly nature.
The same Power that ruled the stars, laid down His life and took it again.
~*~*~
More articles...
The Traditional Catholic View of Astrology
"Praise ye Him, O sun and moon:
praise Him, all ye stars and light''
- http://www.fisheaters.com/astrologybackground.html
- http://www.fisheaters.com/zodiacsummary.html
Lindaland
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posted December 22, 2016 10:10 PM
(Josh Groban; scenes from The Nativity Story) [4:50] 
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posted December 20, 2017 07:09 PM
(Erika Lloyd, arr. Petersen, perf by Avante) [6:15] 
(Mediaeval Baebes, from Of Kings & Angels) [2:56] 
Waiting on the day of the Wise Guys, next.