The Three Wise Men Are To Blame
If there’s any evidence needed that much of U.S. society has crashed heavily through the rails of decency and common sense, then the recent plethora of news stories surrounding violence around Black Friday sales is exhibit A. Only in America would the supposed celebration of peace and good will towards all men be prefaced by violence during the clamor to buy some trinket at a sale price in preparation for the peaceful festivities.
The whole tradition of this can be traced back to three men, the names of whom the majority of people today would not recognize; Balthazar, Gaspar and Melchior. These were the famed Three Wise Men of biblical and historical fame who were the originators of the whole Christmas shopping tradition which manifests itself grotesquely today with Black Friday.
Biblical history tells us that an angel appeared which announced to the 3 men that a very significant event was taking place soon, the birth of the baby Jesus in the town of Bethlehem, a few towns over. Given this important news, the three men decided that it behooved them to make a pilgrimage to see the baby, but not to arrive empty handed. They collectively decided to bring items which were considered valuable in the day. Money of course, in the form of gold is always a good gift. The other items they thought of were frankincense and myrrh, essentially aromatic plant resins. Actually, the latter two were quite thoughtful gifts because in those days, regular bathing had yet to be accepted as social convention. Frankincense and Myrrh were used as perfumes and aromatics to help mask the fragrance of desert sweat and camel perspiration ubiquitous in the day. You can imagine then the importance of these fragrance resins. These items were the Ipads and big screen TV equivalents of today. In fact, the one wise man was chastised for only bringing money since that meant he couldn’t trouble himself to stand in the checkout line at the bazaar to buy something thoughtful. In the end, they all decided to give their gifts as a group rather than assigning any one item to any particular person.
From this gesture began the entire tradition of bestowing gifts at Christmas time to small children, which then expanded to include everyone else. Which brings us to today where the importance of getting the ‘it’ gift has become literally a blood sport as reported by all the news accounts of rabid shoppers at the malls. This can’t be good for society. Maybe it’s a good idea to go back to the gold, frankincense and myrrh tradition. Here’s the solution, give money, Old Spice and Chanel No. 5.