Rise of the Magi: On Three Kings Day, Atheists and Believers Should Call a Truce

[rug]

On Jan. 6, kids all over the Spanish-speaking world will get Christmas toys. Not from Santa Claus, but from Los Reyes Magos – the Magi, aka Wise Men or Three Kings – who according to Biblical tradition followed a star to worship a newborn Jesus and offer him commodities that today would provide a good start for a college fund.

Traditionalists fear the popularity of Santa threatens to dethrone the Magi in Spain and Latin America. But what’s certain is that Jan. 6 – Epiphany, or Twelfth Night, as Christians call it – is no longer the Christmas finale it used to be. That’s a shame, because we could use more examples of broad-minded menschen like the Magi in this dismally dogmatic age of ours. One of the best gifts they bear is some common ground between believers and atheists – which, judging from the reaction to a Christmas article I wrote last month, seems as rare today as presents of frankincense and myrrh.

We’ve long imagined the Magi as intellectually and spiritually enlightened astronomer-philosophers, conversant in both science (what passed for it then) and religion, which they considered compatible. Some scholars suggest the Magi were Zoroastrians, but their faith background is vague, if they had any at all – and that ambiguity is actually fortunate. If they did believe in God, they were also devotees of the rational and empirical; if they didn’t, they could also engage the mystical and transcendent. Either way, what matters is that they were led on their camelback trek by a light of peace, love, hope and redemption.

Atheists of course are just as committed to that peace-on-earth ideal as Christians are, as are Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and pagans. My Christmas essay simply pointed out that both religious fundamentalists and atheist fundamentalists (whom I clearly distinguished from most believers and atheists) can cop pretty intolerant attitudes toward those who don’t believe or disbelieve as they do. Most believers know the fanatics in their midst: this past Christmas season, as I wrote, Christians had to apologize for a Florida fundamentalist group’s bigoted crusade against Muslim-Americans. And I think atheists should be as willing to acknowledge zealots in their own ranks – including the late author Christopher Hitchens.

http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2012/01/05/rise-of-the-magi-on-day-of-three-kings-the-world-could-use-their-open-minded-wisdom/?xid=gonewsedit

[cbayer]

1. I am all for that. Nice article.

[struggle4progress]

2. Three Kings' Day Celebrated Around The Country, From El Barrio To Disneyland

¡Felíz Día de Reyes!

Christmas is over, bank accounts are in recovery, New Year's resolutions were made and probably already forgotten. While for most people, the start of a new year is a time to contemplate the year ahead or to shake off the holiday blues, for most Hispanics it's still part of the Christmas holiday festivities, as on January 6th, Latinos celebrate Día de Reyes, or Three Kings' Day.

The colorful and lively celebration is also known as Epiphany and marks the end of the 12 days of Christmas. Epiphany "is a Christian celebration of the revelation of the birth of Jesus Christ to the world. This is embodied most in the story of three wise men visiting a newborn Jesus with gifts." The festivities commemorate the visit of The Three Kings, or The Three Wise Men -- Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar -- who are said to have arrived with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh for the newborn child.

Over two thousand years later, from New York to Chicago to Southern California, the widely popular tradition is celebrated in cities and communities across the U.S. ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/04/three-kings-day-celebrations_n_1184047.html