What is the Three Kings Day Celebration?

On January 6th in many countries around the world, especially in those that are Hispanic, the celebration of the Epiphany, also known as the Three Kings Day, is observed. but what is the Three Kings Day celebration?

Back home, in my beautiful Puerto Rico the tradition goes like this:

The night of January 5th Puerto Rican kids fill a shoe box with grass and a bowl with water and place it under the their beds.

Next morning children wake up to unwrapped gifts under their beds.

Those were brought by the Three Kings, just like they brought gold, frankincense and myrrh to baby Jesus 12 days after he was born.  The grass and water is for the camels, just like some people leave milk and cookies for Santa Claus.

This tradition varies sometimes depending on the circumstances. Some people like wrapping the gifts to see the children’s reaction, some others place the gifts under the tree because their kids don’t sleep in their own beds yet. But you get the idea!

In other countries the celebration has other variations. For example in Mexico they make the “rosquilla de Reyes” a kind of sweet bread that everybody shares.  People take a piece and whoever takes the one with the “baby Jesus” inside is supposed to invite the others to eat some tamales. In other countries children find their gifts inside their shoes.

For Puerto Ricans in particular, this doesn’t mark the end of Christmas. Our season ends with the St. Sebastian Festival by the end of January.

Although living in California, we are Puerto Ricans and I’m happy to celebrate this beautiful part of our culture, a tradition very close to our hearts.

Happy Three Kings Day!!!

👑👑👑