The Star of the Magi

Here Jan van de Velde the Younger engraved the earliest known print of so-called star-singers on Twelfth Night. This secular celebration mimicked the journey of the Three Magi, or kings, who followed the miraculous star of Bethlehem to the infant Christ. Popular in the 17th-century Dutch Republic, this Epiphany festival, held on January 6, grew beyond the church. It consisted of two parts: an indoor family feast crowning a king chosen by lottery, and a nighttime parade of singers carrying a candle-lit star from door to door. Unlike the generous Magi, the singers demanded gifts as they progressed, illuminated by their glowing paper star.