MISS PEACH'S COZY COTTAGE

Welcome to the COZY COTTAGE. This is the furever home of the memory of Miss Peach, our 18 year old Devon Rex angel kitty. I am Miss Hunny Bunny, she asked me to pour you a cuppa catmint tea as you read our old fashion mewsings about this and that. Please come by often...one lump or two? Now our precious Hunny Bunny is also an angel cat...please let me be your hostess at the cozy cottage...my name is Miss Hope.



Remember...only in our tomorrows will we realize what we had in our yesterdays.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

HOLY THREE (CAT) KINGS DAY!

Wise Cats Seek Him Still
Wise cats seek him still....give HIM the gift of your heart!

The Holy Three Mice Kings and Anja's angel show 'The Magi' the way...follow younder star!

Today is Holy Three Kings Day and this marks the end of the 12 Days Of Christmas...here is a little bit of information on how the day is celebrated in Bavaria where mommy is from...enjoy the story... DREIKONIGSFEST (Festival of the Three Kings) January 6
The Festival of the Three Kings marks the end of the Yuletide season. On this day the Christmas tree is lighted for the last time.
Boys and men dressed as the Three Kings wander about towns and villages of the Kinzig River area and elsewhere, singing old folk songs of the Wise Men and begging for alms. The Kings wear gold paper crowns and carry large cardboard stars. One of their favorite songs says that:
The Three Holy Kings, Carrying their star, Like to eat and drink; But they don't like to pay, For the goodies they get!
In many parts of the country, particularly in western and southern Germany, salt and chalk are consecrated in church on this day. The salt is given the animals to lick, while the Three Kings' traditional initials, C.M.B., for Caspar (also, Gaspar, Kaspar), Melchior, Balthasar (or Balthazar) are chalked above house and stable doors. This is thought to keep evil from entering and harming man or beast. In the Bavarian Forest peasants write above the lintel the legend, "Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, protect us this day from all danger of fire and flood."
Epiphany parties are frequent, with the traditional cake as a special feature of the celebration. A bean, or sometimes a coin, is hidden in the cake. Whoever finds the symbol in his portion becomes king of the feast.
In Upper Bavaria peasants wearing horrible-looking wooden masks go about cracking long whips and symbolically driving out Frau Perchta (also known as Berchta, or Bertha), nature goddess of ancient Germanic mythology and custodian of the dead. According to folk belief the mysterious witch wanders about and harms mortals on the Twelve Days between Christmas and Epiphany. On Perchiennacht, or Epiphany, Perchta and her cohorts, symbolizing powers of both good and evil, are thought to fructify the fields and to frighten naughty children.
The Perchta masks which are handed down from one generation to another, are terrifying in their fantastic ugliness. Some have protruding fangs for teeth, bulging eyes, sinister wrinkles and hairy faces. Those who wear the masks dress in slovenly kerchiefs and dirty aprons, and march through the streets with brooms, chains, and hatchets, fully looking the part of the relentless furies they are intended to represent.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you a lot for this information! Although my female human is German too. She comes from the northern part of Germany where you don't celebrate that day. It's only just the last day for the Christmas tree and decorations.
Love

Rosemary B❤️ said...

This is a wonderful explanation.
The traditions of Christmas are very different in European countries than what is celebrated in the US and UK
cutie cute photos too
I think it is very interesting to know the traditions and celebrations of various religions particularly Catholic and Protestant.
Today is a special day
We will light our tree for the last time!

happy Dreikonigsfest

bonks and love

Jill said...

I guess it's a good thing we haven't taken our tree down yet! We will light it up for 1 last night. Thanks for the wonderful story~very interesting. And thank you so much for the link to my Etsy shop on your blog! What a nice surprise & very sweet of you Mrs. Peach! Enjoy your last day of Christmas! ~ Jill

Gemini and Ichiro said...

We love your Bearing Gifts.. with the kitties...

Anonymous said...

Thanx for the info. See our beans aren't really religious in that aspect, so mom didn't know any of that. Thanx for explanating it to her. Hope you're all doing well and the new year is starting off great for you all!

Julier said...

This is a great post! I truly enjoy hearing of traditions in the old countries. It makes me want to do research on my own heritage's traditions for Christmas. I am Swedish and Irish.

Angel, Kirby and Max said...

Thank you for sharing the info on kings day

L. Alida said...

Hi Peachie and mommy Karla. I am so glad that you are home safe and sound from your holiday at the shore. What a nice time it sounds like you had!
I enjoy old stories and folk tales and histories of holidays.
We had a rather rough two weeks during the holidays. I can't wait for Spring!
I hope Mommy Karla's tooth isn't hurty anymore, but if it is hopefully the dentist can fix it up fast.
Lots of Love,
Lorianna

Luna und Luzie said...

This is a wonderful post today.
I have a wordless picture of the 3 Kings and linked to this post from my blog today.

Here are the Sternsinger walking from house to house today.

It was the last day for our tree and the decoration is already back in the boxes.
The tree is standing on the terasse and new decorated with snow!
Hope your tooth ache is dissapeared.

Liebe Gruesse
Stefanie and the Mietzekatzen

Mickey's Musings said...

Good Evening Sunshine Wife :)
How nice it is to hear of the custom from your Mom's homeland!!!!
WE are always fascinated by the various customs celebrated around the world, Happy Dreikonigsfest
Purrs Mickey

The Florida Furkids said...

We don't take our tree down until Epiphany. We love that picture of the 3 cats!

Sniffie and the Florida Furkids

Garden Cats + Crafts said...

This is really a nice post about the Dreikönigsfest, dear Karla. On 6th January is also the day in Germany, where most people remove their Christmas trees. I have decided that our tree was allowed to stay. It looks so beautiful on the large amount of snow out there. When we have this before ...
H&K from Birgit and the 2 kitties

Amy & the house of cats said...

Wow we didn't know a lot of that stuff. We know our mom's dad would keep the tree up til the 6th, so that is why mom does it, and she knew it was the end of the 12 days of Christmas and Ephiphany (which none of us can spell)but she didn't know about all the celebrations! Thanks for telling us about it!

Catline Crew said...

We loved your post. It's nice to learn about other traditions. Thank you for sharing.