Diseño del blog

22 noviembre 2021

Ana del Río

Who were the Three Wise Men?

In Spain and in many other Hispanic countries, the Christmas celebrations don't finish on 25th of December. We also celebrate, and it's the favorite of the children, The Epiphany, better known as The Three Wise Men Day, every 6th of January.

The History behind The Three Wise Men

The Three Wise Men are known as The Magic Kings -Los Reyes Magos- in Spanish, and they only appear in the Gospel of Matthew, in which some magicians are mentioned, but without specifying their names, that they were kings or that they were three.  

What the Gospel explain is that some magicians were guided from the East by a star to worship the newborn Jesus. When Herod, the King of Judea, found out the news, tried to find out where the baby was. The Three Wise Men found the baby in a stable in the city of Bethlehem, with Mariah and Joseph. 

After prostrated themselves and offer him gold, the metal of the kings, incense, the gift of the gods and myrrh, as an announcement of the future ailments, they were warned by an angel of not coming back to the Herod's palace because he just wanted to end the life of the baby. 

Herod got so angry after he knew that The Three Wise Men left without inform him, that he ordered to kill all the children of Bethlehem under two years old. 

The Gospels offer very little information about the Three Wise Men. In fact, the origin of the Three Wise Men as we understand nowadays, comes from the medieval tradition. For instance, the names Melchior Caspar and Balthazar appeard for the first time in the famous mosaic of the VI century in the basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in the Italian city of Ravena. 


How do we celebrate this festivity?


First, every kid must write a letter to the Three Wise Men asking for different presents and send it using the special letter boxes installed in the streets to that effect. And yes, Spanish kids have to wait to the 6th of January to received the Christmas presents.


Then, the festivity starts on 5th of January, when the Kings arrive to the cities and perform a splendid cavalcade. The Three Wise Men distribute candies and show their magnificence. 


Click in the next picture to watch a video of the amazing cavalcade in Madrid:


Another tradition of the Night of the Kings is to leave one shoe of each member of the family under the tree, to facilitate the delivery of the presents. You also should leave some water and bread for the camels and a glass of champagne of liqueur for the Kings. 


But careful, not every single child will receive a preset: those whose behavior wasn’t good during the year, will get a piece of coal. Nowadays, sugar coal is sold to trick on naughty children.


Parents will have to convince their children to go to sleep soon and next day, when they wake up, they will find the presents under the Christmas tree. 


That morning is also known for the tradicional sweet called Roscón de Reyes: ring-shaped cake with sugar coated fruits that hides a figure for the good luck and a bean, that if you find, you will have to pay the whole pastry). 




If you are a Spanish teacher and you want your students to get familiar with The Three Wise Men and the rest of our Christmas traditions , check out our lastest teaching material available in our shop:



La Navidad en España
La Navidad en España

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