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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsFSogol's 2018 Advent Calendar Day 24: Baby Gift Shopping Guide - 4 BCE
Earlier, I wrote about the Christmas Star and the 3 Kings. Today, I'll look at the gifts they brought. In many Catholic countries in Europe and South America, the arrival of the 3 Kings on Epiphany (Jan 6, also known as the 12th day of Christmas) is the day of the real celebration and gift giving.
From the King James Bible, Mathew 2:11:
And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.
From top to bottom: myrrh, gold, and frankincense.
We don't really need to think about gold. Good gift then, good gift now.
But what are frankincense and myrrh and why would they make good gifts?
Frankincense and myrrh are both resins extracted from trees in the Burseraceae family, also known as the torchwood or incense family. Frankincense comes from the dried sap of Boswellia trees, while myrrh comes from the lifeblood of the Commiphora. Extracting the sap is a tenuous danceyou must injure the tree without killing it. If done properly, the wound will stimulate a process called gummosis, which is exactly what it sounds like: the tree tries to gum up the damage, and you can carve off the resulting ooze for your own uses. Over millennia, people have learned just how far you can go, Daly says.
Burseraceae may be associated with the ancient world, but its still found in tropical regions from Africa and Asia to Central and South America. Wherever I go, Daly says, theyre all used for the same thing by people who never had any contact. Everything from the bark of the tree to the sap inside is fragrant, so both frankincense and myrrh are used as incense and perfume. Historically, myrrh was also an embalming fluidhence Hapshetsuts dogged interest in the plant. Both have religious value; they were set aflame to honor the gods and ward off evil spirits. But, Daly says, they also have deeply practical uses, even today.You find that people use the frankincense and myrrh plant for dozens if not hundreds of purposes, from helping you get pregnant to helping your cows produce milk, he says. Mixed with other compounds, the resin can even seal the broken hull of a boat. Its bewildering the number of uses they have, Daly says.
Today, gold, frankincense, and myrrh seem like unequal gifts. But in ancient times, the botanical extracts were worth the same, or even more. In the 1st century A.D., the Roman Empire was in deficit spending, Daly says, as it imported hundreds of tons of the smelly stuff each year. Daly likens frankincense fever to the oil wars fought in modern times. Hapshetsuts spies, who ventured to the Land of Punt, or modern Eritrea, werent innocently looking for pretty plants. They were trying to secure their own homegrown sources of frankincense and myrrh, because they were tired of paying through the nose for it, Daly says. If cultivation didnt work, conquering the land these plants naturally grew on would not have been above any of these ancient rulers.
More at: https://www.popsci.com/what-are-frankincense-and-myrrh
On Amazon frankincense oil costs $12 for 10 ml and myrrh oil cost $24.50 for 4 oz.
Gold Price per Ounce is $1,264.30 today.
Cecil Adams from The Straight Dope points out that:
in this age of online commerce you can buy frankincense direct from the sultanate of Oman? Also top-quality myrrh? I mean, lest you feel you have to settle for the Walgreens kind.
He also adds:
Frankincense was used to make eyeliner. But not just any eyeliner I mean that weird Egyptian stuff Elizabeth Taylor wore in Cleopatra. This was back in the days when they werent clear whether the purpose of cosmetics was to enhance womanly beauty or scare off birds.
Myrrh was used as a perfume and was also added to cheap wine to make it more drinkable. Such a mixture was offered to condemned convicts to numb them out before death. You might remember that Jesus declined some before his demise (Mark 15:23). Myrrh was also used in cosmetics and medicines. Evidently, given the limited pharmacopoeia of the time, myrrh was the default answer to all problems. So, Brutus, the differential go out? Better put some myrrh on it.
Frankincense, one reads, has historically been used in Christian and other religious rituals to purify the air. This was obviously written by someone with very limited experience of religious rituals. When I was an altar boy, the most coveted job (which I had) was to be thurifer, or incense hassler. This job was great because you got to (a) light the charcoal in the thurible (incense burner) before the service, which gave my natural desire to play with matches a religious significance that I still feel when lighting coals in the Weber; and (b) you could ladle in all the incense you wanted. The result was not purer air; on the contrary, I routinely produced enough smoke to make it look like the church was on fire. In my case this merely annoyed the priest. But in the old days, youre talking about a congregation that slept with camels and didnt have the benefit of refrigerated mortuaries. No doubt smelling frankincense was preferable to smelling anything else.
Myrrh was used as a perfume and was also added to cheap wine to make it more drinkable. Such a mixture was offered to condemned convicts to numb them out before death. You might remember that Jesus declined some before his demise (Mark 15:23). Myrrh was also used in cosmetics and medicines. Evidently, given the limited pharmacopoeia of the time, myrrh was the default answer to all problems. So, Brutus, the differential go out? Better put some myrrh on it.
Frankincense, one reads, has historically been used in Christian and other religious rituals to purify the air. This was obviously written by someone with very limited experience of religious rituals. When I was an altar boy, the most coveted job (which I had) was to be thurifer, or incense hassler. This job was great because you got to (a) light the charcoal in the thurible (incense burner) before the service, which gave my natural desire to play with matches a religious significance that I still feel when lighting coals in the Weber; and (b) you could ladle in all the incense you wanted. The result was not purer air; on the contrary, I routinely produced enough smoke to make it look like the church was on fire. In my case this merely annoyed the priest. But in the old days, youre talking about a congregation that slept with camels and didnt have the benefit of refrigerated mortuaries. No doubt smelling frankincense was preferable to smelling anything else.
https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1300/why-did-the-magi-consider-frankincense-and-myrrh-such-valuable-gifts/
If you haven't purchased any gifts yet, get some books or Legos. They'll be a bigger hit than oil. Of course, if you can afford it, gold is the way to go.
(For an explanation of my advent project and a link to last years posts, see
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181152160 )
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