How many love Christmas and Christmas spirit? YES!
Don’t you wish it could last just a few days more? YES!
What if I told you that you can? TELL ME MORE!
You can celebrate Dia de Los Reyes or Three Kings Day. I’ve never celebrated it before, but when showing interest in this age old holiday, there were a couple things I needed to know.
In Hispanic culture, January 6th is a special day known as ‘El Dia de Reyes‘ (Three Kings Day). The date marks the peak of the twelve days of Christmas and honors the three wise men that traveled from afar, bearing gifts for the infant baby Jesus.
Traditions to celebrating Dia de Los Reyes
Food: During Dia de Los Reyes, Hispanics celebrate by having a delicious family dinner and serve Rosca de Reyes {Kings wreath}, an oval shaped sweet bread with a figurine hidden inside. Whoever finds the figurine is blessed and is to host the upcoming party for Dia de la Candelaria {Candlemas Day} that occurs on February 2.
Activities: On January 5th, many families add the wise men to their nativity scene. They also prepare for the wise men’s arrival by preparing the box of grass and cleaning their shoes to receive their gifts.
Gifts: Children leave a box of grass or hay and water for The Three King’s camels to eat similar to the tradition of leaving out cookies and milk for Santa Claus. Very much like Christmas stockings, children line their shoes by the door so the “wise men” can come in the night to leave them small gifts.
Symbolism: The oval shape of the Rosca symbolizes the king’s crown and the hidden figurine represents the hiding of baby Jesus during King Herod’s order to kill all male children under the age of 2 years old {Matthew 2:13-16}. The gesture of giving gifts to children is parallel to the wise men bringing gifts to baby Jesus.
I will use any excuse to keep the Christmas spirit alive a few more weeks. While I’ve never celebrated it before, I’m looking forward to incorporating this holiday into our family tradition. So go ahead, keep your tree up a bit longer, get some major discounts on Christmas stuff {local stores always have awesome “after Christmas” sales} and enjoy the holiday season a few weeks more.
Feliz Dia de Los Reyes.
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Ash you have inspired me to join this tradition. I always wanted to do this with the kids and this year is a must.great job on this story I enjoyed it.
Thanks, Bianca! Same here! Looking forward to it. Post pictures and tag me 🙂
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