History
After the Reformation in the 16th century, pupils of the cathedral schools in Protestant nations conducted these processions to raise funds to replace the church support that had disappeared. The traditional practice developed differently in the north and the south of Europe.
Since then the Star boys' singing procession has become common in many parts of Europe (both in Catholic and Protestant areas) and in Russia.
The importance of the Twelfth Day and the feat of the Epiphany grew with the introduction of the Gregorian calendar as the day, according to the earlier Julian calendar, is also the Old Christmas Day. The custom passed further on to the general populace as a kind of narrative folk drama, but seems to have declined in its original form since the late 19th century.
Read more about this topic: Star Boys' Singing Procession
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“We may pretend that we’re basically moral people who make mistakes, but the whole of history proves otherwise.”
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“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
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