Will you be performing a Christmas play?
Not on my own, but I'll be part of it.
And in French they're
les Rois mages, the Magi Kings...
They are the Three Holy Kings in German... Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar.
In Catholic areas (Austria, southern Germany and parts of west Germany around the Rhine), people paint C+M+B on other peoples' houses around Christmas time (do they also do that in Belgium?). Some also write K+M+B there (because Kaspar can be spelt with a K).
A few days ago, my mother asked me if I had any idea what CMB stood for. I said
Christus Mansionem Benedicat ... and explained that it is sometimes spelt with a K, in which case it is to be taken as
Kyrios ... Then she asked me "Ok, but do you know WHAT ELSE it stands for?"
I said "What are you talking about?" and she triumphantly said "The names of the three kings! Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar!"
I mean, if I know the Latin phrase, what are the chances I don't know the rest of the story? I gently reminded her that I explained the whole thing in a play some 12 years ago.
(She knew that stuff from a city tour through Zwickau she had taken one day earlier. She also gave me an explanation as to why there are only 11 and not 12 candles on a candle arch ... even though we don't have a single candle arch with 11 candles.)