Spanish Holiday Traditions: The 3 Wisemen

After last year's 3 King Parade
Since I will be spending another holiday season here in Spain, I have decided to do a series of posts about holiday traditions that are important when celebrating. Some of them are similar to those back home, others are quite different. I hope you enjoy learning a bit about what we do here to celebrate the season!

The Three Wisemen

The Three Wisemen, The Magic Kings, The Three Kings of the Orient, The Magi, whatever you want to call them, these three guys are Spain´s equivalent to Santa Claus. They bring children toys on the night of January 5th which coincides with when the Wisemen arrived to meet the baby Jesus, bringing gifts. 

Instead of reindeer, these dudes have magic camels, so children are sure to leave them water and carrots. They (the Kings, not the camels) also have names: Baltasar, Melchor and Gaspar and people tend to have a favorite. Children write to the Kings to ask for gifts and they know that if they are bad, they won´t get anything.

 The Wisemen (like Santa in a lot of places) are the protagonists of their own parade on January 5th. They ride around cities and towns on big floats and throw presents and candy to the children and families that are watching. It is quite a big production and is fun to watch.

 This is all not to say that Santa doesn´t visit the kids in Spain, he just isn´t that big of a deal. Here the three Kings reign supreme (get my joke?).

 Roscon de Reyes


 It is also a tradition to eat a roscon which is like a big donut shaped cake on the morning of January 6th after everyone has opened their presents. Baked into this cake is a small figure and also a small bean. As the cake is cut and eaten if you get the figure you will have good luck. If you get the bean you must buy the next year's Roscon. I unfortunately got the bean last year so I will be buying this year. Bummer.

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