Chalking the door is one of the Christian Epiphanytide traditions used to bless one's home.

Epiphany

Either on

Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night'', or ''What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Vi ...

(5 January), the twelfth day of

Christmastide Christmastide is a season of the liturgical year in most Christian churches. In some, Christmastide is identical to Twelvetide. For the Catholic Church, Lutheran Church, Anglican Church and Methodist Church, Christmastide begins on 24 December ...

and eve of the feast of the Epiphany, or on Epiphany Day (6 January) itself, many Christians (including

Anglicans Anglicanism is a Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia ...

Lutherans Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...

, Methodists,

Presbyterians Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...

and

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, among others) write on their doors or

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of ...

s with

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. C ...

in a pattern such as "20 ✝ C ✝ M ✝ B ✝ ". The numbers in this example refer to the calendar year and the

crosses Crosses may refer to: * Cross, the symbol Geography * Crosses, Cher, a French municipality * Crosses, Arkansas, a small community located in the Ozarks of north west Arkansas Language * Crosses, a truce term used in East Anglia and Lincolnshire ...

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

. The letters C, M, and B stand for the traditional names of the

Magi Magi (; singular magus ; from Latin '' magus'', cf. fa, مغ ) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius t ...

(

Caspar Caspar is a masculine given name. It may refer to: People * Caspar (magus), a name traditionally given to one of the Three Magi in the Bible who brought the baby Jesus gifts * Caspar Austa (born 1982), Estonian cyclist * Caspar Badrutt (1848–190 ...

Melchior Melchior is the name traditionally given to one of the biblical Magi appearing in the Gospel of Matthew. There are many notable people with this name, or close variations. As a first name * Melchior Anderegg (1828–1914), Swiss mountain guide * ...

and Balthazar), or alternatively for the Latin

blessing In religion, a blessing (also used to refer to bestowing of such) is the impartation of something with grace, holiness, spiritual redemption, or divine will. Etymology and Germanic paganism The modern English language term ''bless'' likely ...

('May Christ bless this house'). Another form, for Three Kings day, is to mark the door with "IIIK" (the Roman numeral three followed by "K" for "Kings"). Chalking the door is done most commonly on Epiphany Day itself. However, it can be done on any day of the Epiphany season. In some localities, the chalk used to write the Epiphanytide pattern is blessed by a Christian priest or minister on Epiphany Day, then taken home to write the pattern. The Christian custom of chalking the door has a biblical precedent as the

Israelites The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...

in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

marked their doors in order to be saved from death; likewise, the Epiphanytide practice serves to protect Christian homes from evil spirits until the next Epiphany Day, at which time the custom is repeated. Families also perform this act to represent the hospitality of the

Holy Family The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on, but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de Laval, the fir ...

to the Magi (and all

Gentile Gentile () is a word that usually means "someone who is not a Jew". Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, sometimes use the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is generally used as a synonym fo ...

s); it thus serves as a

house blessing House blessings (also known as house healings, house clearings, house cleansings and space clearing) are rites intended to protect the inhabitants of a house or apartment from misfortune, whether before moving into it or to "heal" it after an occur ...

to invite the presence of God in one's home. In 20th century Poland, the practice of chalking the door continued among believers as a way of asserting their Christian identity, despite the Eastern Bloc's

state atheism State atheism is the incorporation of positive atheism or non-theism into political regimes. It may also refer to large-scale secularization attempts by governments. It is a form of religion-state relationship that is usually ideologically l ...

and antireligious campaigns.

Gallery: Epiphany season door chalking

File:C+M+B 2009 an der Tür der Villa Reepschlägerbahn 30, Bild 001.JPG, Epiphany season door chalking at the Villa Reepschlägerbahn in Germany File:"Christ Bless This House" Chalk Marking on the West Face of the Church of St Michael, Welling.jpg, Epiphany door chalking at the Anglican Church of St Michael in Welling,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

File:Sexten Schmiedenstraße 20 008 2019 09 26.jpg, Epiphany door chalking in

Sexten Sexten (; it, Sesto ) is a ''comune'' in South Tyrol in northern Italy. The village is famous as a summer and winter sport resort in the mountains. According to the 2011 census, 95.37% of the population speak German, 4.36% Italian and 0.27% Ladin ...

, Italy File:Bonifatiuskirche HD Eingang Februar 2012.JPG, Epiphany door chalking in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...

, Germany File:001 2013 09 15 Eingaenge und Tueren.jpg, Epiphany door chalking in Mittelberg, Austria

Footnotes

References

External links

Epiphany Door Chalking
by Christ the King Anglican Church
An Epiphany Blessing of Homes and Chalking the Door
by Discipleship Ministries of The United Methodist Church
Chalking the Door: An Epiphany House Blessing 2016
by the Roman Catholic Order of Carmelites {{Epiphany, state=expanded Christmastide Epiphany (holiday) Chalk Religious rituals