Finding Balthazar

​On my first Christmas in Germany in 1990, I totally expected to be filled with Glüwein and Christmas Stollen (warm spiced wine and a loaf cake with dried fruits). Klaus, my ex-partner, who grew up in the little town of Halstenbeck – just 20 minutes from Hamburg couldn’t wait to show me a better, pared-down, German way of celebrating Christianity’s origin story: the birth of Jesus Christ.
 
Now “Mein Klaus” (my Klaus), was no Bible-thumbing religious zealot – far from it. He was Prussian: a straight-shooting-no-frills Mensch. A good guy with simple tastes. By the time I met him, he had lived on Long Island, New York, for more than 30 years. And while he thought he was a cool American, he was still very German. He abhorred the way we Americans celebrated the holiday with our extravagant and excessive gift giving, the ostentatious decorations, and the earworm Christmas carols that played in his head from the day after Thanksgiving until his New Year Eve’s hangover administered the cure.
 
For Klaus, Christmas or “Weinhnacht” was about a simple, small tree with wooden or straw ornaments and real candles. It was the tradition of dressing up (in conservative colors – no ugly sweaters or Santa hats) for dinner at his brother’s home. And, while we rarely went to church back home, he insisted we attend a very, very long midnight service on Christmas Eve. (Which I nodded through because of the Glüwein, the hour, and not knowing German well enough to know what was going on.)
 
For the moments I was alert, something caught and fixated my attention on the Nativity display on the altar. The antique porcelain figurines featured the expected blonde baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph with their delicate white skin. No surprises there, as expected. However, what I had not expected was that one wise man was Black! Really and clearly Black! We were the only Black people in a congregation of several hundred people. I knew how I got there, but how did a Black Magi find his way in that Nativity?
 
I grew up as most African American kids in the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s inundated with the “white” version of the Bible. My childhood church – even though it was named African Methodist Episcopal or A.M.E. – had blonde, White Jesus everywhere: the church fans, the stained glass windows, the portrait that hung next to that of Richard Allen, one of the founders of the denomination, and even our porcelain Nativity figurines. I had lived through 35 Christmases and seen hundreds of Nativity displays and plays – and never once seen the real Balthazar!
 
He found me!
 
The rest of the vacation took us to Berlin (East and West), Dresden, Keil, and little towns all around. And Balthazar was there with his pot of myrrh for the “newborn King.” When I asked Klaus what he knew about Balthazar, he seemed shocked that I, as a Black person, didn’t know that wise men could be of African descent. How could I have known? How could I have not known is a better question.
 
Balthazar, like his travelling companions Caspar and Melchoir, were astrologers and kings. According to the Gospel of Matthew, the Magi (from which we get the word “magic”) were priests in the ancient Zoroastrian religion. These priests or Magi were accomplished astrologers – at that time a highly-respected science.
 
There is much debate over the countries from which the Magi hail, but Melchior is said to be Persian (some say this of Balthazar); Caspar, Indian; and Balthazar Ethiopian, Persian, or Macedonian. What matters is that he’s clearly a brother who could portend the future because his gift of myrrh is a rare gum-resin used as perfume, incense, and medicine. It is said he gave this gift to baby Jesus because it would be used to cleanse his body in death.
 
On an esoteric level the three Magi represent the three stars of Orion’s Belt. These stars align with the three pyramids of Giza. When frankincense and myrrh are combined they can be used to anoint the head to induce a “Christlike” state of balance and peace.
 
I am happy to note in three decades since my discovery of Balthazar, many modern American Nativity scenes now show him as a Black man. However, there are still a few holdouts. Just look at the Christmas card I recently found!
 
 
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balthazar_(magus)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Magi#Names
 
 
Bio:
Regina Robinson is an adult and K-6 educator and the president of RM Robinson Solutions LLC (RMRS). The company provides workplace, elementary, and early childhood education solutions. She holds a master’s degree in Media Ecology from New York University and lives in a historic house in the Germantown section of Philadelphia with her husband, John, and her dog/son, Iggie.

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