Mark in Pink for Culture El día de los Reyes Mark in Pink for Culture

Bellwork – 8 de enero Bienvenidos! Please write the following in Spanish. Do your best and use your notes if you have them. I don’t like to read. Where is the store? I am in front of the house. Yo _____ (tener) tres gatos. (Write English Translation too.) Bob y yo _______(ser) graciosos. (Write English Translation too.)

el día de los reyes Over the break, you missed one holiday that may not know about or have heard about before. It is called, “el día de los reyes”. Does anybody know what this means?

el día de los reyes – the day of the kings El día de los Reyes is celebrated on the sixth of January. This celebration is the conclusion of the Spanish Christmas holiday. In Spanish they call “the three wise men” los reyes magos (the magic kings). They have them named even, Melchor, Gaspar, and Baltasar. Children in Spain still believe, like Santa, that the Reyes Magos come on the night of January 5th. They believe that the Reyes Magos can come by many forms of transportation, planes, boats, helicopters, camels, and even a hot air balloon.

Parade – January 5th Picture of parade in streets of Madrid.

On January 5th, Children leave their shoes outside their bedroom door while they sleep so that the Reyes can leave them a gift inside their shoes. Children leave grass and water outside their rooms in case the Reyes took camels to come to their home. If the children have been well behaved, they receive candy or some presents. If the children have been behaving badly during the year, they will receive coal in their shoes. If the child is awake when the Reyes come by then the Reyes will leave them nothing.

On January 6th Children wake up and check to see what presents were left at their shoes. Families have parties and eat what is called, a “Rosca de Reyes”. Rosca means wreath. It is round and hollow in the middle and is supposed to look like a crown.

Inside the Rosca, there is a baby Jesus hidden, whoever finds the baby Jesus hidden in their slice of cake, has to invite everyone at the Día de los Reyes Party over for a meal on February 2nd. In Mexico, that meal is supposed to be a tamale dinner.

Homework Worksheet on el día de los Reyes. Due tomorrow, 9 de enero.