Kings, Chalk and Cold Water

Popular observance splits along the same East-West line. In much of Catholic and Protestant Europe and Latin America the day is Three Kings' Day, a gift-giving climax to Christmas: children receive presents said to come from the Magi, the rosca de reyes or galette des rois is eaten with a hidden token that makes the finder king for the day, and the letters C+M+B (for the traditional names Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, and for a Latin blessing of the house) are chalked over doorways.

In the Orthodox world the day is the Theophany, and its great rite is the Great Blessing of Waters: the clergy bless water in church and at rivers, lakes and harbours, and in many countries a cross is thrown into the water for swimmers to retrieve in the winter cold. The two families of custom, the kings and the blessing of the waters, both flow from the single idea of manifestation, and Epiphany closes the Christmas cycle much as it opened the year for the earliest churches.