Each family will have their own favorite dishes to share on the day, but the food most associated with the day is the Mexican Rosca, which is a version of the Spanish Roscón de Reyes, or king cake.ĭifferent countries have very different versions of the king cake. As with any Mexican celebration, food and drink play a central role in the festivities. While street celebrations and parades can be a feature of Tres Reyes in Mexico, it is more often a family event, which, like the other festivals of the season, often see family members traveling long distances to spend the special date with their loved ones. In modern day Spain most cities hold large and well attended parades with fancifully accoutered ‘kings’ distributing handfuls of sweets to adults and children alike. Just as the figure representing the baby Jesus is only added to the scene on the 24th of December at midnight as part of the Nochebuena celebrations, Tres Reyes is the day the Three Kings are placed alongside him. These often elaborate dioramas act not only as a decorative centerpiece to the festivities, but also as a physical calendar to mark the passing of the various holy days. Many families now split the gift giving across Tres Reyes and Christmas, to delight of both children and those who sell sweets and toys.Īnyone who has visited a Mexican home during December or early January is likely to have seen the Nativity scenes that families set up during the season. Another tradition is that children write letters to the kings eight days beforehand to ask for the specific gifts they want. In other areas, such as the Yucatán Peninsula, shoes are not used and gifts can be placed under a Christmas tree or the household Nativity scene. Some children also fill their shoes with hay and lay out water, for the kings’ camels to eat and drink when they make their visit. In traditions that will seem familiar yet different to those who celebrate Christmas in the English speaking world, in some parts of Mexico on the night of the 5th of January, children lay clean, empty shoes to be filled overnight with sweets, small toys, or money, with the threat that only well behaved children will be visited. While the Anglo-American importation of Santa Claus into cultures worldwide has taken hold and continues to grow in Mexico, it is the coming of the Tres Reyes and the gifts the kings will bear that still holds the most excitement for many children.

In Spain, and consequently in Latin America, the arrival and subsequent gift giving by the Three Kings has been the focus of the day for centuries. Historians have also suggested that the festival was a Christian adaptation of 3rd century Greco-Roman Saturnalia, which developed in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. The other events are the baptism of Jesus, which some scholars have interpreted to have taken place exactly on the date of his 30th birthday, and finally the Wedding at Cana, the first miracle of Jesus in the Book of John. The most common in the Western European and Latin American churches is that of the visit paid by the Three Kings, Wise Men or Magi, Melchor, Gaspar and Baltazar to the newborn baby Jesus, as described in the Book of Matthew in the Bible. The celebration of Epiphany can be traced back as far as 4th century Greece, and in different Christian traditions is used to mark one or all of three different biblical events. While the Mexican version of the event is in many ways familiar to that in parts of Spain, there are some traditions that have evolved on this side of the Atlantic. This festival, the name of which is often shortened in various ways across the Spanish speaking world, is the celebration of the Catholic festival of Epiphany, or the twelfth day of Christmas.

This date marks El Dia de los Tres Reyes Magos de Oriente, or Three Kings Day. For many Mexicans, especially children, the most anticipated day of the festive season is not Christmas, but instead the 6th of January.

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