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> Chalking the door is one of the Christian Epiphanytide traditions used to bless one's home.[1]
 
> Either on Twelfth Night (5 January), the twelfth day of Christmastide and eve of the feast of the Epiphany, or on Epiphany Day (6 January) itself, many Christians ... write on their doors or lintels with chalk in a pattern such as "20 ✝ C ✝ M ✝ B ✝ 23". The numbers in this example refer to the calendar year 2023 and the crosses to Christ. The letters C, M, and B stand for the traditional names of the Magi (Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar), or alternatively for the Latin blessing Christus mansionem benedicat ('May Christ bless this house').[2] Another form, for Three Kings day, is to mark the door with "IIIK" (the Roman numeral three followed by "K" for "Kings").
 
> Chalking the door is done most commonly on Epiphany Day itself. However, it can be done on any day of the Epiphany season.[3] In some localities, the chalk used to write the Epiphanytide pattern is blessed by a Christian priest ... on Epiphany Day, then taken home to write the pattern.[4]
 
> The Christian custom of chalking the door has a biblical precedent as the Israelites in the Old Testament marked their doors in order to be saved from death ... Families also perform this act to represent the hospitality of the Holy Family to the Magi (and all Gentiles); it thus serves as a house blessing to invite the presence of God in one's home.[6][a]
 
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3 comments:
1 year ago 0 points (+0 / -0 ) 1 child
Why reject the feasts of God for these man made concoctions?
1 year ago 0 points (+0 / -0 ) 1 child
I understand you have a different religious view although I am curious what is so offensive about this one, it's a house blessing tradition
 
do you object to observing the 12 days of Christmas? Or rather the Epiphany? Epiphany traditions are pretty old:
 
https://infogalactic.com/info/Epiphany_(holiday)
 
> The earliest reference to Epiphany as a Christian feast was in A.D. 361, by Ammianus Marcellinus
 
The protestant / fundamentalist / evangelical / etc. rejection of certain traditions feels hard for me to follow as Catholics and orthodox and some protestants share a history and agreement of observing them to some degree
1 year ago 0 points (+0 / -0 )
7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
Mark 7 KJV
 
Daily Verse and Comment for Exodus 32:1-5
https://www.theberean.org/index.cfm/main/default/id/813/ver/KJV/exodus-32-1-5.htm
Exodus 32:1-5
(1) And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. (2) And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. (3) And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. (4) And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. (5) And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.
King James Version
As this episode began, the people were not really asking for a change of gods but rather a new human leader. Moses had borne much of the brunt of Israel's discontent, and now he had disappeared! In their impatience, they wanted to entrust their leadership to one who could make a god. But this highly offended the true God and Moses! To them the golden calf was an attempt to redefine God's nature and control Him according to their desires.
In like manner, the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches say the ornaments, icons, crucifixes, Madonna statues, and Christmas trees are only to keep God in mind. But this is the same principle involved in Exodus 32! It is not long before people associate the image with God.
In the Golden Calf episode, the first and second commandments were directly broken. Aaron proclaimed it "a feast to the LORD." The churches say, "These things are dedicated to worshipping God." The true God says in verses 7-8 that they had "corrupted themselves . . . and worshipped it." This sounds like today's Christmas observance. The people corrupted themselves by redefining God's nature and His way of worship according to their desires and ends.
— John W. Ritenbaugh
 
Daily Verse and Comment for Amos 4:4-5
https://www.theberean.org/index.cfm/main/default/id/2020/ver/KJV/amos-4-4-5.htm
Amos 4:4-5
(4) Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years: (5) And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.
King James Version
Transgress in verse 4 means rebellion, not just sin. God considered Israel's syncretistic approach to religion to be an outright rejection of His way of life.
Amos is speaking sarcastically when he suggests that the people sacrifice and tithe more often. "If you bring your tithes every three days (NKJV, AMP) instead of every three years," he says, "maybe your god, Baal, will respond." This sounds somewhat like Elijah's sarcastic comments in I Kings 18:27.
Amos mentions "leaven" in verse 5. Leaven was not allowed to be in any sacrifice: "No grain offering which you bring to the LORD shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey in any offering to the LORD made by fire" (Leviticus 2:11). Only one offering, the wave loaves on Pentecost, was made with leaven (Leviticus 23:17). A sin offering preceded the offering of the wave loaves, the leavening in them representing the sins still in the congregation of Israel.
Here, Amos' sarcasm continues. The Israelites might as well have been making all their sacrifices with leaven because all their traditions, doctrines, customs, and religious duties were nothing but vanity. Even though they were sincere in doing them, they were nevertheless a leaven brought in from the world. In like manner, Jesus tells us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matthew 16:6-12), that is, of their doctrine and their traditions.
Even a quick glance at modern religious practices reveals how thoughtlessly people accept the doctrines and traditions they have learned—without proving them. Millions of sincere people attend church every week, celebrate the holidays, and send their children to church schools without ever proving their beliefs. They sing in the choir and donate generously when the plate is passed, but they do not really know—have an intimate relationship with—the god they worship. They just blindly accept the leaven they were taught while growing up.
— John W. Ritenbaugh
 
30 Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
31 Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God: for every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
32 What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
Dueteronomy 12 KJV
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