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Most people are familiar with the Biblical story of the three wise men and their gifts to the baby Jesus: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. What's unclear, however, is what the last two really are. We wanted some good definitions under our belt so we stopped off at Merriam-Webster, our favorite online dictionary. According to the good book, frankincense is: a fragrant gum resin from trees of a genus (Boswellia of the family Burseraceae) of Somalia and southern coastal Arabia that is an important incense resin and was used in ancient times in religious rites and in embalming Next we looked up
myrrh: a yellowish brown to reddish brown aromatic gum resin with a bitter slightly pungent taste obtained from a tree (especially Commiphora abyssinica of the family Burseraceae) of eastern Africa and Arabia Why did dried tree sap make good presents? Frankincense and myrrh, like their counterpart gold, were fairly rare and expensive. Besides their monetary value, both substances have symbolic and practical value. They continue to be sold today in a wide variety of products intended for an even wider variety of uses.
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