Dia De Los Reyes Magos

This week we had Dia de los Reyes, or King’s Day, the day by custom that they celebrate the three Wisemen arriving at Bethlehem.  In Spain, that is when the kings deliver presents to all the children. The kids here write letters to Los Reyes Magos in the same way that in the US we write letters to Santa Claus. In the first picture you can see both Santa climbing into one balcony with the three kings climbing into another. (click for larger view)

Since Kings Day is such a large custom here, they have a lot of traditions surrounding the kings.  There were three kings, one from each continent, Europe, Asia and Africa named respectively Gaspar, Melchior and Balthazar.  The gifts they brought also mean different things: gold because Christ was a king, frankincense because he was divine, myrrh because he would die for us all.

Here in Madrid we had a grand parade that started at 6:30 pm, afterward there had fireworks, but by about 8:00 our girls were falling and we left after the parade.  And what a parade it was!  There were thousands of people gathered around the route, we were probably 8 rows back but luckily on a hill and could still see.   They started with giant globes with people inside.  She looked like a Christmas fairy.

They had several HUGE puppets and balloons

All the floats were lit up, since it was night.  Yes, those are giant Smurfs.  There was tons of candy, bubbles and lights that night. We had so much fun.

The float carrying the Three Kings at the end was huge, and you really can’t appreciate it from here, but it was spectacular.  Perhaps you can appreciate the size of the crowd though….

The next morning we opened our eyes to filled stockings and presents.  We have had a fun time.

On Kings Day everyone eats King Cake, or Roscon de Reyes, a large circular cake that has cream filling and a hole in the center.  Inside there is a tiny figurine of a king.  The person who gets that piece gets to be king for the day.