January 6, Three Kings Day, has come and gone and we are left to calm, gentle days of rest; or back to the daily grind of day-to-day living. Holiday gifts were enjoyed, others stored as precious keepsakes to cherish when we open the vault of memories during inspired moments.
January 6, is last day for the Christmas Tree to stand tall and returned to storage along with other bits and pieces like the wooden replica of the “Three Kings.” Gee, that must have been in Christmases of long ago. I remember a Christmas card placed under the tree with a picture of the Three Kings – making me recall a homily by our parish priest about their gifts (gold, frankincense, and myrrh) and who these three gift-bearing Kings of ages past were (Gaspar, Melchor, and Balthazar).
This might be far-fetched from the biblical story of the Three Kings – this is about my high school classmate Melchor.
His parents must have named him after one of the Three Kings; and had always been “Melsor” to his classmates. Only our teacher could pronounce his name correctly.
As the story goes, the Three Kings were apathetic to the “NO ROOM AT THE INN” sign at the inn that earlier refused entry to Mary and Joseph. Garbed in a sovereign ensemble, the Three Kings continued their long journey. Were they astride horses or camels? The question remains (answered only in your choice of Christmas decorations and symbols).
If my recollection is right, “NO ROOM AT THE INN” is also the title of the play we performed in high school. The play also featured a song of the same name.
Three classmates, acting in the role of the Three Kings, recited poetic lines such as: “We three kings of Orient are/Bearing gifts we traverse afar/Field and fountain, moor and mountain/Following yonder star.”
The Bible speaks of Epiphany, a revelation: “The Star of Bethlehem, or Christmas Star, appears only in the nativity story of the Gospel of Matthew, where [Gaspar, Melchor, and Balthazar] (Magi) are inspired by the star to travel to Jerusalem.” The Three Kings went down to the manger to see the King of Kings because there was NO ROOM AT THE INN. Let’s go down in the manger to see the King of Kings For there’s no room in the Inn.
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Every issue of Reader’s Digest features “Laughter is the Best Medicine.” I wholly agree.
Laughter knows no season. Sometimes (or oftentimes) one bursts into laughter or maybe it’s my stomach bursting after filling up with tempting offerings from three other kings. Really? Why? Read on:
The first heartiest, funniest, rib-tickling email I got in 2019 came from my friend Mila Oncena-Marzo, quoting her verbatim: “According to a legend, 6 pala ang original na kings, but only 3 reached Bethlehem. One went to USA and become Burger King, one went to China town to become Chow King, and one went to Manila to become Tapa King.”
Did you get your heart’s content? To everyone, a happy, prosperous, peaceful 2019!
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Julia Carreon-Lagoc was a Panay News columnist for two decades. She pops up with Accents now and then. (jclagoc@gmail.com)/WDJ