Tomorrow, January 5 2021, is Twelfth Night, the marker for the end of the Christmas season of twelve days, and the day after that is the Feast of the Three Kings, also called Epiphany. It’s usually marked with celebrations of the three kings, Melchior, Balthazar, and Gaspar of legend, who followed a star to the birth place of Jesus in Bethlehem. Then, having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went home by another way.
In other years, I’ve produced a hymn for the Three Kings, and a sonnet, and a full-scale painting of them. But this year I returned to a style of animation that I admired once upon a time, and tried my hand at that. May the Three Kings bless your home, too, in the next few days, with grace and ease that lasts the whole year long.
My friends Sh. & S. have been sending out Christmas cards with the Three Kings on them for as long as I’ve known them, with a little note that says something to the effect of, “Sh grew up in a house where a new image of the Three Kings was hung near the front door each year at their feast, to bless and protect the house, and bring prosperity and gladness all the year long. We provide you with this image of them to do the same.” It’s been my custom to keep that card just inside the door, below the mirror, for as long as I’ve been on their Christmas Card list — and I’ve provided an image back to them, of course: they got the painting for their house.
This year, I’m not able to produce a hand-drawn image. So I went with something a little more digital. May the Three Kings bless your house with ease and gladness… and maybe your dashboard too.
