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The first day of winter will bring a celestial delight. According to Rice University astronomer Patrick Hartigan, Jupiter and Saturn will appear closer than they’ve been since the Middle Ages. The effect will create a “Christmas Star,” or “Star of Bethlehem.” 2020 can sure use it.Just after the sun sets on December 21, the winter solstice, the two planets will look like a double planet, or large star.“Alignments between these two planets are rather rare, occurring once every 20 years or so, but this conjunction is exceptionally rare because of how close the planets will appear to one another,” said...

Just after sunset on the evening of December 21, 2020, Jupiter and Saturn will appear closer together in Earth’s night sky than they have been since the Middle Ages, offering people the world over a celestial treat to ring in the winter solstice. Jupiter and Saturn have been approaching one another in Earth’s sky since the summer. From December 16-25, the two will be separated by less than the diameter of a full moon. Though the best viewing conditions will be near the equator, the event will be observable anywhere on Earth, weather-permitting. Hartigan said the planetary duo will appear...

An unusual folk celebration of the Three Kings will be held in Caguas this evening, as musicians sing a third of the traditional rosary sung to the Magi. Elsewhere the typical celebration of the Epiphany got under way Sunday as the Magi and island mayors distributed toys and candy to children in their homes. A rosary to the Three Kings will be sung at 7 p.m. tonight on the steps of the Dulce Nombre De Jesús Cathedral in Plaza Santiago R. Palmer in Caguas. Folklore expert Norma Salazar of the city’s Cultural Development Department will direct the event, in which...

AnalysisMany balk at this element of the Nativity story, but historical and astronomical evidence tends to corroborate it. By Michael J. MillerDuring a 2007 BBC radio interview, the archbishop of Canterbury deconstructed elements of the Nativity story. “Stars simply don’t behave like that,” Rowan Williams said. Asked about the existence of three wise men, he replied, “It works quite well as legend.”But years ago Father Walter Brandmüller, president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, published an essay applying the historical-critical method to the question of the Nativity story. (The essay is reprinted without cumbersome footnotes in Light and Shadows: Church...

(English-language translation) The sight of three sumptuously-dressed potentates giving the first Christmas gifts has been portrayed in innumerable ways: in classical paintings, in greeting cards, and even in some billboard on a public square. We know their names: Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar. Standing on one side of the stable, in the company of animals, shepherds, and a few angels fluttering around the beams. They sing John Henry Hopkins' immortal Christmas carol "We Three Kings of Orient Are", and each one describes the meaning behind the gift he carries. There is only one problem. The Bible never mentions only three kings...

In its December 27, 2005 online edition, "El Vocero" newspaper from Puerto Rico reports that the governor of that U. S. Commonwealth has signed a bill assigning an annual $75,000 grant to help finance the Kings' Day (Epiphany) Festival which has been held every year since 1884 in the southern coastal town of Juana Díaz. The monies will be specifically allocated to the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture which, in turn, will provide them to a local private organization responsible for holding the Festival. To those fellow FReepers who are a little rusty on their Biblical history, the Epiphany is...