After the new year, the Spanish have a few days to recover and then they celebrate another Christmas holiday, the arrival of the three kings. Now this holiday is called Los Tres Reyes Magos. While the U.S. doesn't usually celelbrate this holiday, many of the Latin American countries do. In Spain, the holiday starts the night before with a Cabalgata de los Reyes Magos or Three Kings Parade. Families from all over the city gathered at Vigo's city center dressed in their best along the route of the parade. The parade started with police cars and horseback riders. It was so neat to see all of the floats that the parade had prepared. Almost every float had children on board throwing candy to the others in the streets. They were dancing to songs, singing, and having a great time. Now I am thinking that this observation may just be because I live in Vigo, which is a large port city in Spain but, most of the floats in this years Cabalgata were "ocean/sea" related. Fish, Octopus, Spongebob, seahorses, jellyfish, and so much more were all represented in the parade floats. Unfortunately I was not prepared with my nice camera and had to resort to taking small videos/photos with my cell phone. So here is a taste of what I got to see!
After the parade, families slowly make their way back to their homes, casually talking to neighbors on their way. The kids, grab a pair of their shoes and put them out in the middle of the living room floor before going straight to bed.
When they awake in the morning, the three kings have come and there are presents for all the children. Now I cannot say if this is truely fact, but the students that I teach have told me that the three kings is WAY better than Christmas. This meaning there are better presents? or they like it because of the candy? or idk? But for some reason or another the children here seem to enjoy Los Reyes Magos more than Papa Noel (Santa).
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