While doing a round trip with my girl and friends, we have found a peculiar encryption on the frames of some doors in South Germany
asked Apr 2, 2019 at 17:06
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1 Answer
Have a look at Star singers and Chalking the door (both Wikipedia):
Chalking the door is a Christian Epiphanytide tradition used in order to bless one's home, as well as a Scottish custom of landlord and tenant law.
[...]
Either on Twelfth Night (January 5), the twelfth day of Christmastide and eve of the feast of the Epiphany, or on Epiphany Day (January 6) itself, many Christians [...] chalk their doors with a pattern such as this, "20 † C † M † B † 19", with the numbers referring "to the calendar year (20 and 19, for instance, for this upcoming year, 2019); the crosses stand for Christ; and the letters have a two-fold significance: C, M and B are the initials for the traditional names of the Magi (Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar), but they are also an abbreviation of the Latin blessing Christus mansionem benedicat, which means, May Christ bless this house."
