Tres Reyes - Three Wise Men

Tres Reyes - Three Kings, Biblical Magi - 6th January - is a very important feast in Spain. Unlike in Poland (and most of the "Christmas celebrating" countries) there are Three Wise Men who bring the presents! NOT SANTA CLAUS! (quite reasonable, as the tradition says: they brought the gifts to Jesus) 

Gifts... this is the reason why Spanish children long for THIS day more than for Christmas ;D True, they can find small presents under the Christmas tree on 25th December, however, they need to wait a few days more to get more generous, ideal 'regalo'. And where do they find it? In a shoe or next to it ;) why?

Traditionally, the night before family members put their shoes near the window (this is the way Tres Reyes get into the house :), which is also quite reasonable, since not all flats! have got chimneys/fireplaces! :) - windows - I would say ALL :) Moreover, next to the shoes, they leave some biscuits, 3 glasses and 1 bottle of liquid - I mean a drink of any kind: water, milk, nesquick, cola cao etc. :) So that paretns can choose what they want to drink that night :) ( all of these beverages they drink here a lot, indeed!)

So, how does Spain celebrate it? Spectacularly :) 

That's why I had to came back from Poland to see it with my own eyes ;) 

Being lucky to live in Madrid I could witness the biggest CABALGATA in Spain. CABA... what? :)

Cabalgata - Desfile de Tres Reyes - a huge festive parade taken place a night before, in the evening of 5th January, with numerous decorated platforms, floating confetti, people dressed up as fairytale characters throwing the candies to the "audience" and all these closed with three "cheries on the cake" :) - the characters of Three Wise Men.

The view really worth seeing... not only the event in itself but  also the atmosphere; the whole families rushing to see the magical parade... the children trying to catch the falling sweets (in the bags ;)... fathers holding their kids on the backs, explaining the tradition of the event...   really cute scenes ;) for example like this:

;)

One daddy asked his little son:

- "Do you know what are the names of Tree Wise Men?"

- "yyy Balthazar... and Balthazar...and...yyyy Balthazar " :D 

;)

(After this, Pablito learnt the names, again :) 

Roscón de Reyes - "traditional Three Kings dessert" - a  sweet roll made of yeast-cake with creamy filling inside, and it is decorated with sugary ornaments ;) 

Roscón is typical snack for Tres Reyes,  nevertheless, you will hear a lot about it around Christmas time. Since the Spanish do not have "typical typical" Christmas dishes, roscón and turrón (see below) are quintessential food products of the Holy time :)

  

a crown!?

You see well :)

I haven't told yet! ;) 

All the roscóns have two small surprises inside. The one is a tiny figure of a king and the other is a stone - like a plum stone.

The custom is like this: a person who finds a figure - will be lucky during the whole year and if one comes across a tough piece - it means he or she  p a y s  for the roscón next year! 

Funny trick, isn't it? ;)

(In Poland, in some families, we put the coin of 1 zloty in a Christmas Eve dumpling. Let's put a stone in another one -with the message: you make dumplings next year! :) 

Turrón - it's a sweet, a confection, kind of halva of multiple tastes, filled with toasted almonds and nuts... mmm yummy! 

There are two types of Spanish turrón, hard and soft. The last one is for those who do not want to " strain" their teeth anymore :) (here 'to strain' can mean 'to lose ':)

  * pictures taken from the google graphs 

(I feel guilty I did not take pictures of it, and I desperately wanted to show it to YOU!)