Los tres Reyos

I spent a long time last evening looking at pictures from Spain of the many celebrations of this special day.  The Christian Church in general calls this day Epiphany - the coming of the Kings and in many countries it is the biggest day of the year.  When I lived in Spain you could feel the excitment growing as the day drew near with
excitment and anticipation you never knew at any other time - the 'Mooros y Christianos' fiesta was a really huge fiesta which every town celebrated on a different day in the summer - mostly for the visitors I suspect.
But 'Los Tres Reyos' meant everything to the Spaniards for whom Christmas and New Year meant nothing by comparison.   The children get their presents from the Kings and the anticipation is tantamount to 'something in the air' as the time comes nearer for their arrival.  The Kings arrive by different modes of transport depending where you live, we lived in a coastal town and our Kings arrived by fishing boat clad in their ancient and sumptuously decorated costumes then transfered themselves to high stepping Spanish horses and danced through the streets to the ayuntamiento (Town Hall) followed by the whole population of the town;  the chidren would received their families' presents from the Kings then after coffee and brandy for the adults and sweets for the children we would all ...FOLLOW THE KINGS... to the parish church
for the first and most important mass of the year.  Women and children (and dogs!) all packed inside and all men outside smoking huge cigars.   I will never forget our 'Epiphanys' in Spain and went through all my memories last night watching the celebrations that the Spaniards love with all their hearts.   Wonderful!