Epiphany House Blessing (Chalking the Door)

The blessing of a home on or near the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6), in which the year and the letters C+M+B — standing both for the traditional names of the Magi (Caspar, Melchior, Balthasar) and for the Latin Christus mansionem benedicat ("May Christ bless this house") — are chalked above the doorway, accompanied by a household prayer and sprinkling with holy water. Priests originally made a house-blessing round through their parish after Epiphany; as parishes grew the ritual passed to householders themselves. The custom spread through German-speaking Catholic parishes and thence to Central and Eastern Europe. In modern times it was formalized as the Sternsinger ("Star Singers") tradition, revived institutionally in 1958 under the Federation of German Catholic Youth (BDKJ) as a charitable fundraising practice. It has since been adopted in Catholic communities worldwide, and more recently by Anglican and Episcopal communities (formally included in the Episcopal Church's Book of Occasional Services in 2018).