Happy Three Kings Day! (Feliz Dia de Reyes)

Growing up in Puerto Rico, yes we celebrated Christmas but the big festivity was, and still is, Three Kings Day which is celebrated on the 6th of January.  We celebrate this holiday on the 6th of January because it is the day of Epiphany, which is the day the Three Kings arrived bearing gifts for the baby Jesus.   We took (and still do) this celebration so seriously that we did not get our holiday gifts on Christmas Day; we got them on Three Kings Day to commemorate the Magi?s visit.  And if by any chance you have a birthday in January (like I do) you got hoaxed, because the parents would combine both presents into one.  Oy, I hated that?LOL.  But my parents got better with time.  In school we also had our Christmas pageant that celebrated both ocassions, the birth of the baby Jesus and the arrival of the Magi.  Here is me in one of those pageants.  The photo is a little blurry but it is one of the few I have from this time.


 
But back to the traditions.  As a child I could not understand why I couldn?t get my presents on Christmas Day, like the kids in the American Christmas movies.  Instead of the Jolly Ol? Man, we got Three Kings; but deep down I loved them too!  On the Vispera de Reyes or Eve of Three Kings Days instead of cookies and milk, we gathered grass for the camels.  We collected the grass and put it on a shoe box (don?t ask me why a shoe box), then we would write our wish list, put it in the same box, then put the box under our bed.   By the time it was time to go to sleep, we would be wired and fighting the sleep because we were listening for the camels? hooves sounds.  In the morning, when we woke up we would find gifts, and the grass would be gone as if the camels ate it. 

I still remember the day I figured out my parents were behind the Magi?s gifts.  I heard a noise coming from the living room, only to find my dad putting together my brother?s bicycle.  He jammed his finger and couldn?t help the Spanish expletive that came out of his mouth.  But no matter that I knew, my parents always made this day a very special day.  Looking back it amazes me that no matter what hardships my parents were going through because of lack of job at the time, of family medical emergencies, every Three Kings Day my brother and I always had beautiful presents.  Not once did we wake up to find out that the camels did not eat our grass.  And that helped keep the child like wonder and excitement in our hearts, even as we grow up.

So, on this day take a moment to say a little prayer for the Three Kings that came to pay their homage to the child Christ.  And cherish the childhood days that we cannot get back, but we keep in our hearts no matter what.  Feliz Dia de Reyes!