Feliz dia de los tres reyes magos. Happy Three Kings Day

So today is the last day of the holidays (Fiestas) in Spain and this year they seem to have lasted longer than ever (I am not really complaining). With official Fiesta days falling in midweek many Spanish bridged (El Puente) their holidays from the 20th of December until today (Día de los tres reyes magos) Three Kings Day.

I love the fact that the Spanish still celebrate their traditional holidays with parades and events. Friends and Families gathering to eat drink and party. It all starts the afternoon of Christmas Eve with people meeting for drinks and food, with some streets being closed and different events taking place before they go home for the traditional Christmas Eve meal. Christmas day is a family day, multi generations out for a walk, drinks and tapas and often lunch in a restaurant. The Spanish don’t celebrate Boxing Day, but as it fell on a Thursday this year, they bridged their holidays to the weekend.

Then comes New Years Eve, with many Spanish eating at home and then partaking in the tradition of the twelve grapes ('the twelve grapes (of luck)') is a Spanish tradition that consists of?eating a grape with each of the twelve clock bell strikes at midnight of 31 December to welcome the New Year.) Then they go out to party, many until the wee hours (0.600). As you can imagine New Years Day is a very quiet affair with most of the shops and supermarkets closed.

The build up to the Three Kings then starts and this year because the days fell on a Sunday and Monday the shopping started a bit earlier. On the evening of January 5th the parade of the Three Kings take place all over Spain Since the 19th century, Spanish towns and cities have been putting on parades to mark the occasion. There might be floats with effigies of each of the Three Wise Men in the parade, or they might be played by local dignitaries. Either way, these are big, colourful parades that make their way through the main streets of the town, throwing handfuls of sweets out over the crowds. These are fun, light-hearted parades, in contrast to the sombre parades during Holy Week, or Semana Santa.

Just like children waiting for Father Christmas, Spanish children have to get to bed early after watching the parades to ensure they don’t miss the?Wise Men bearing gifts. They leave their best pair of shoes, sparkling clean, outside their doors to be filled with gifts. Again, just like with Father Christmas, Spanish children write letters to the Three Wise Men before the big day and leave out snacks and drinks for their camels. Naughty children might get sweet ‘coal’ in their shoes instead of gifts.?

So tomorrow it will be all back to normal, but what a two weeks we have just had!