tres reyes

January 5th & 6th, 2014
Tres Reyes (Eve)
In Spain, Christmas comes later in the year than American Christmas. Although they do celebrate Christmas and Christmas Eve, it's not as big as Tres Reyes.
On January 6th, or Epiphany, celebrates the Three Kings who came to visit Baby Jesus when he was born. It is celebrated with a huge parade with the three kings
Gaspar- King of Sheba who brought Frankincense (I have no idea what Frankincense is, and when looked up on Wikipedia, I got a science answer which still didn't help, so I hope you understand it better than I do)
Melchor- King of Arabia who brought Gold
Balthazar King of Tarse and Egypt who brough Myrrh to Jesus (just like Frankincense, Wikipedia gave me the scientific answer)
The Three Kings ride on their camels during the parade through the streets of Pamplona and all the little kids scream
"GASPAR!! MELCHOR!! BALTHAZAR!!"
There's always a favorite king between the little kids, I think it's Melchor...no Gaspar...wait no Balthazar..wait..I don't know.
Anyway, all the kids get excited on candy and get all bundled up to go out in the cold to see the three kings.
There's the parade in the daytime where the Three Kings walk into Pamplona, through the streets and then end up at City Hall and then leave for the night parade of the Calbagata.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Tres Reyes but I really wanted to share it.

This is an Italian Coffee which consists of coffee, cream and amaretto.

It was delicious and I will be making it in the near future.

 Pictured below is the Calbagata parade where different kinds of shows are paraded through the streets until the three kings arrive.

These represent Royal Mailboxes where the little kids put their Christmas lists to the Three Kings, similar to little kids putting their Christmas lists to the North Pole for Santa to read.

Three King #1-Melchor

Three King #2- Gaspar

Three King #3- Balthazar 

On this day, families sit together and have "Rosco" for dessert which is a special cake only sold during this time.

Rosco is a sweet cake with cream inside and usually decorated on the outside. The main part about the Rosco is that there is a good toy and a bad toy.
But let's start from the beginning.
I'm not sure if every family does this, but this is what my family does.
Before the cake is cut, everyone puts in 1 Euro in the middle. When the person gets the good toy it means that they are the king/queen and win the pot of Euros in the middle. -It's similar to Mardi Gras with the baby inside-. Only unlike Mardi Gras, there is a bad toy which is a bean and whoever gets that has to pay the person who bought the cake.
Can you guess which one I got?





Nothing, my sister won.
Little did we know, that we were going to have Rosco for two days.
One on the 5th
Once again on the 6th and my aunt's house
And once again on the 6th at my grandma's house
By the time we hit my grandma's house, we were all sick of it and did our best to eat it. Even after Tres Reyes every time we saw something that looked remotely like a Rosco, our heart stopped because we couldn't take it anymore.
 After eating Rosco and more chocolates, we gathered around the couch and opened presents and laid around until it was time for bed, which is similar to what I'm used to back home.

Happy Three Kings and watch this video to get an idea of what they kind of looked like, you'll appreciate it

Three Wise Guys