Today being the Epiphany/12th day of Christmas (hint, hint...time to take down the Christmas decorations) there's no better day to take a look at the gifts of the Three Magi.
From The Independent (UK)...
They journeyed from the East to pay homage to the boy king bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. But they would struggle to complete the feat today. Gold prices are soaring on commodity markets, myrrh crops have been hit by drought – and now frankincense could soon be no more.
Solid frankincense resin can be sold at up to £37.33 per kilo (about $75). Myrrh is roughly twice as expensive, but prices are volatile. And four days before Christmas, an ounce of gold costs £1,029.20 on the international market – up by nearly 20 per cent this year.
But the worst news comes from Dutch ecologists studying populations of Boswellia in Ethiopia, who warn that the number of the frankincense-producing trees could halve in the next 15 years and eventually cease altogether if factors such as fire, grazing and insect attack go unchecked. An extinction of Boswellia would put an end to a millennia-old trade in the aromatic resin, which peaked under the Roman Empire and still provides materials for the perfume and aromatherapy industries today.
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