This Wednesday begins
The Feast of The Holy Epiphany
6 January
In poem and picture, the wise men came to be thought of as three kings, and in many countries (particularly Spanish-speaking ones), children receive gifts, not on 25 December, but on
6 January in memory of the gifts that the wise men brought to the Holy Child. Christian writers have interpreted the gold as a sign that Jesus is King, the Frankincense as a sign that He is God, and the myrrh (used in embalming) as a sign that He is by His death and Resurrection the Savior of the world. This imagery is found in the song, "We Three Kings of Orient Are." The three gifts are also understood as a sign of three responses that we ought to make to Christ. See the following hymn:
THE BLESSED BIRTH
That so thy Blessed Birth, O Christ,
might through the world be spread about,
the star appeared in the East,
whereby the Gentiles found thee out;
and offered thee Myrrh, Incense, Gold,
thy three-fold office to unfold.
Tears that from true repentance drop,
instead of Myrrh present will we:
for Incense we will offer up
our prayers and praises unto thee;
and bring for Gold each pious deed,
which doth from saving faith proceed.
And as those wise men never went
to visit Herod any more,
so, finding thee, we will repent
our courses followed heretofore;
and that we homeward may retire
the way by thee we will enquire.
George Wither (1588-1667) in his Hymnes and Songs of The Church, 1623. There is a musical setting by H. Walford Davies (1869-1941).
Taken from: James Kiefer's Christian Biographies
http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/home.html