Well, it's been Christmas again. And we're now counting down the 12 days of Christmas. Remember the song with the Partridge in a Pear Tree? Well, in Western Christianity, it is not about the 12 days leading to Christmas, but Christmas day and the 11 after it - leading up to 6 January, known religiously as 'Epiphany'. This, traditionally, is the day when The Magi visited the newborn Jesus. (And in the modern day we barely recognise this period / event, beyond the tradition that decorations must all be taken down before Twelfth Night to avoid bad luck!)
In UK biblical tradition, there were Three Kings (or Three Wise Men, or Magi) who visited Jesus when he was born. They came from the East, and followed an unusually bright star in order to navigate their way to the stable where he was born. The Magi knelt before the infant Jesus, and it was a sign that powerful people had realised Jesus's significance from day one. And they brought with them three precious gifts: gold, frankincense, myrrh.
In fact
it seems the number of kings was not made explicit in the Bible, and
some branches of Christianity believe in larger groups of Magi. Magi is the Latin plural of 'Magus', meaning magician - and in ancient times, referred to Zoroastrian priests from maybe Persia or Babylonia, who were expert astronomers and astrologers.
But anyway, back to the gifts. All these gifts are traditionally viewed as presents fit for a king. And Gold, we all know about. But Frankincense and Myrrh? What's going on there? They're peculiar words which Christian children make jokes about. Because in the West, most people have never seen or used them.
In fact, I've seen Frankincense a few times, in markets in Dubai and Jerusalem, for example. It's actually the fragrant resin from a tree, and looks a bit like chunks of crystally rock, or rough brown sugar crystals. It can be used as incense, for aromatherapy and can even be chewed to aid digestion and for other medicinal uses. In some cultures, it was mixed with oils for anointing people (including infants) as a sort of initiation, and symbolised Godliness. Frankincense comes mainly from North Africa and Arabia, and was traded widely in olden times, even as far East as China. It was used as far back as ancient Egypt. Today in the West it is used nearly only as incense at some 'high Church' ceremonies. Which is why most of us had never seen it as children. Apparently it's still used as part of traditional medicine in India and other countries. There are different grades and types of Frankincense, coming from different varieties of the same tree.
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| Frankincense resin |
The smell is a sort of sweet, woody, piney fragrance. Some varieties are 'lemony'. The modern English name comes from old French, meaning 'noble incense' - basically, if you were a Wise Man, it was a posh gift to give!
Myrrh is a bit more obscure. Though actually it is also an aromatic resin originating in Arabia and North Africa - but from a different tree. I'm not sure I've seen Myrrh in modern markets, and in ancient times is was considered a rare substance. But it, too, can be used as an incense and medicine, and it can be ingested if mixed with wine. It generally has a reputation as an analgesic and antiseptic, and is also used in Chinese and Indian traditional medicines to correct bloodflow. Myrrh was used in embalming processes (by the ancient Egyptians, for example) and some people took this gift from the Magi to symbolise the fact that Jesus would die early to save man. (Now there's a cheerful baby shower gift.) Though some parties state that in ancient times, Myrrh could also be used to rid infants of both coughing and worms - thus it had a healthy, practical use too!
Myrrh apparently smells more like a bitter aniseed. The name originates in the Middle East, and means 'bitter'. Both Frankincense and
Myrrh are obtained from their respective trees by slicing the bark, so
that the beads of resin drip out and harden.
Oddly enough, in their day, it is likely that both of these resins were more valuable than the third gift: Gold.
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| Myrrh resin |
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| Harvesting Frankincense |
I ended up trying absinthe for the first time in Singapore. Randomly. The drink is European (famously from France) and I've made plenty of trips to Paris from the UK intending to try it, but we never quite managed! So, I ended up trying it in Asia.
Absinthe is one of those slightly enigmatic drinks. It has a 'glamorous' history of inspiring great artists to create great art in the 19th and early 20th centuries, alongside others getting generally quite sick from it. It's supposed to be ludicrously strong, hallucinogenic, and generally not a healthy thing. And as a result it was banned throughout most of Europe and the USA for a good chunk of the 20th century. (Real, clean absinthe has since been scientifically proven to be no worse than other spirits, and the bans have mostly been lifted - in fact I don't think it was ever banned in the UK.)
Absinthe is made from the Wormwood plant, along with fennel, anise and other herby things. The famous illustrations generally depict it as green, but in actual fact there are a few different versions. And these depend on how it is distilled. A superior product is green from natural processes, but many are artificially coloured nowadays. The drink can also be clear, known as blanche (white) or bleu (blue) absinthe.
And you don't just drink it, straight, on the rocks, with a mixer. There are special procedures for drinking absinthe, which is one aspect which drew me to it. It is consumed by mixing sugar and water with the spirit. This sometimes takes the form of resting a sugar lump on a special absinthe spoon, and then slowly dripping water (from a special absinthe dripping jug!) through the sugar into the drink.
We tried a good quality absinthe bleu, and in the bar we visited, the process involved resting an absinthe spoon + sugar lump on each glass, and lighting the sugar, so that it melted and dripped into the spirit. Then we added water. When water is added, the drink turns cloudy. We were told to add roughly 3 parts water to 1 part spirit.
The verdict:
I liked it. It's understandably quite sweet, but the flavour and aroma are - also not surprisingly given the ingredients - strongly of aniseed or liquorice. And I like the natural forms of this flavour (my companions were less excited!) And the entire ritual of preparing it was kinda fun. My opinion: I think 3 parts water is a bit too weak! I'm not much of a drinker but even I didn't struggle with the alcohol content here - did Manet and co. really turn crazy and artistically inspired by this?! So if you try, maybe add 1-2 parts of water and sip a bit first!
Next on the list is to try a green absinthe, somewhere in the world. And maybe with a different preparation process. Still researching on that one, and once I find it I'll be sure to blog it :)
Photo courtesty of Yohei.
