Epiphany

Traditions... January 6th is Epiphany and part of the Christmas period.  (don't you take your Christmas tree down before Jan 6th!).  Unfortunately, the habit of children dressed up as the 3 kings singing from door to door has almost disappeared. I never participated as a child myself, as my parents didn't want me to beg and I didn't find other partners in crime anyhow.  But nowadays you don't cross them very often anymore.  But a few days later in the weekend we had a group at our door anyhow and I thought that was very exciting.

In the east of Belgium, in the German-speaking area, the tradition of 3 kings singing at each house is much stronger and there you can see at the house marks where they've been.  The mark 20*C*M*B*yy is written on the door or letter box and brings good luck.  We had seen this for the first time in Monchau, Germany and looked it up. The C+M+B are the names of the 3 kings: Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar, in case you are wondering.  

Another tradition remains: the 3kings pie with a hidden gem in it.  All bakeries, all supermarkets, ...stack them up by January 6th. And each year we buy a pie with king, cut it up very carefully and then dig in while searching for the gem.  

The children just smash their piece as soon as possible, as they don't care for eating it at all. For years it's been Kabouter getting the gem and I did once, much to Beertje's chagrin but this time he was lucky. 

So praise to the new proud king!