Chalking the door

A Christmas wreath adorning a home, with the top left hand corner of the front door chalked for Epiphanytide and the wreath hanger bearing a placard of the Angel Gabriel

Chalking the door is a Christian Epiphanytide tradition used in order to bless one's home, as well as a Scottish custom of landlord and tenant law.

Epiphanytide

Either on Twelfth Night (January 5), the twelfth day of Christmastide and eve of the feast of the Epiphany, or on Epiphany Day (January 6) itself, many Christians chalk their doors with a pattern such as this, "20 † C † M † B † 12", with the numbers referring "to the calendar year (20 and 12, for instance, for the year 2012); the crosses stand for Christ; and the letters have a two-fold significance: C, M, and B are the initials for the traditional names of the Magi (Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar), but they are also an abbreviation of the Latin blessing Christus mansionem benedicat, which means, May Christ bless this house."[1] In some localities, but not in all, the chalk used to write the Epiphanytide pattern is blessed by a Christian priest or minister on Epiphany Day; Christians then take the chalk home and use it to write the pattern.[2]

Whitsun

In Scotland, the law dictated that a burgh officer, in presence of witnesses, chalks the most patent door forty days before Whit Sunday, having made out an execution of chalking, in which his name must be inserted, and which must be subscribed by himself and two witnesses.

This ceremony now proceeds simply on the verbal order of the proprietor. The execution of chalking is a warrant under which decree of removal will be pronounced by the burgh court, in virtue of which the tenant may be ejected on the expiration of a charge of six days.

References

  1. ↑ Amber and John Inscore Essick (2011). "Distinctive Traditions of Epiphany" (PDF). Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
  2. ↑ The Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier. 1988. p. 512. ISBN 9780717201198.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Chalking the Door". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

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