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You have probably heard of the twelve days of Christmas. Maybe you have wondered how there could be twelve days of Christmas, when you know perfectly well that Christmas only lasts one day. It all has to do with the magi who visited Bethlehem. But "magi" is the Greek word, which means "sorcerer" or "magician," so I'd better call them magicians. Tell you what, let me tell you the whole thing as if it's a story...


Once upon a time, long, long ago, there lived some magicians in the mysterious lands of the East. These magicians were astrologers, too, which means they looked at the stars in the sky at night and made predictions about what might happen. These magicians worshipped their own gods and goddesses. They held rituals where they burned incense, and used costly herbs to make potions. These women and men were wise people indeed, and their neighbors would come to them for advice and help. Their neighbors valued the wisdom of the magicians so much they would pay for the advice in solid gold.

One night, the magicians stayed up quite late so they could watch the stars. They looked at all the stars spread out over the night sky. First they looked to the north, studying all the stars carefully -- then they turned to the eastern sky, and the southern sky, and the western sky, and at last they studied the stars straight overhead. After a while, one of them turned back to the eastern sky.

"Look!" she said. "There's a new star in the east!"

All the magicians turned and looked, and indeed there was a new star in the east. But what could this mean? It was very very rare for a new star to appear in the sky. So the magicians studied all the stars and at last they determined that some of them should travel to the east to see if they could find out what the new star meant.

They loaded up some camels, bringing along food and water and some of the things they needed for their rituals. Twelve of them set forth, twelve men and women following the mysterious new star.

They travelled and travelled and travelled, for more than a week, and at last they arrived in the distant city of Jerusalem right about on the day we would call January 4th. They presented themselves at the home of the ruler of Jerusalem, who was a man named King Herod. When the magicians met King Herod, they did not like him much, but they didn't know whom else to ask about the star. King Herod did not know about the star. He called his astrologers, but King Herod's astrologers did not know about the star. At last in frustration, the magicians left the home of King Herod.

When they got back outside, there was the star, brighter than ever, only now it was more to the south. They decided to head south. They walked for two more days, and finally arrived in Bethlehem.
As they were wondering where they should go next, they ran into a group of shepherds, and they began talking with these shepherds. "We've been walking for twelve whole days," said the magicians, "trying to figure out what this new star is that we can see in the sky."

"Twelve days, huh?" said one of the shepherds. "Well, twelve days ago, we saw the most beautiful little newborn baby in a stable. In fact, the family is still there, just up the hill, in that stable right up there."

"Interesting," said the oldest and wisest magician. She thought about it for a moment, and then said, "But I'm not convinced that our star was trying to tell us about this particular child. Every new child is important and special. Nevertheless, as long as we are here, let us go and admire this particular little baby."

So the shepherds took the magicians up the hill, and they all went in to see the cutest little baby. The magicians brought out some incense and myrrh, and performed magical ritual for newborn babies, and since the baby's parent's looked as though they didn't have much money, the magicians gave them some gold. Then the magicians went back off on their quest, to see if they could find what the new star really meant.


Now you know why we talk about twelve days of Christmas -- because it took twelve days for the magicians, or magi, to travle all that long way and see the newborn baby named Jesus. As for the rest of the story I've told you this morning -- some of it is based on serious scholarship (the magi weren't kings, but were some kind of magicians), and some of it I made up (we really don't know how many magi there were, so I made up that there were twelve).

Source: Matthew 2.1-12.