While in the US, children receive their gifts on Christmas from Santa Claus, here in Mexico it is the Three Kings (the ones who brought presents to Jesus) that bring them gifts on the evening of January 5. (However, Mexican children from well-off families can ask for presents from both Santa Claus and the Three Kings.)
As far as how to tell the Three Kings them how good you have been and which presents you would like - what could be better than sending your message by balloon?
On the days leading up to Dia de los Reyes Magos, the streets are filled with vendors happy to help you send your message to the Three Kings. Children write their messages, tie it to the bottom of the balloon, and then release it at anytime before they go to bed on the night of January 5th.
It is also popular to take pictures with the Three Kings. Traditionally, one of the three is always from African descent. As few foreigners live in Mexico, this role is frequently portrayed through the use of make-up.
The night before Dia de los Reyes Magos the custom is to have hot chocolate along with Rosca de Reyes - a large just slightly sweet bread with candies figs and fruit paste placed on top.
Hidden in the bread are tiny plastic figurines of babies, with the size of the Rosca determining how many can be found within it. Each person cuts their own piece and, if they find a baby in their piece, they have to buy tamales for that group on Dia de la Candelaria (February 2nd).
Of course, of the 5 baby figurines found in our Rosca, I found two of them.
Then, once the children have gone to bed, the adults head off to one of the hundreds of street markets filled with toys and games, set up just for this night. It took us over two hours just to walk thur one of the local ones set up near my in-laws' house.
Each of these markets is enormous and very, very crowded, containing everything a kid could desire: DVDs, CDs, video games, stuffed animals, dolls, bicycles, scooters, clothing, and lots of candy.
In a tradition similar to that in the US of Santa Claus filling stockings hung on the mantle with small toys and candy, in Mexico it is popular to give children stockings filled with candy on this day.
Receiving gifts is so important for this holiday that families without much money will pawn things to be able to afford gifts for their children.
As this was my first experience with this holiday, Ismael bought me a balloon and told the vendor that I was going to write a message to the Three Kings asking for a gift. She looked a little embarrassed and kept on saying no, surely I was not going to (this is, after all, only a holiday for kids.) While I did not write them a note, they kindly dropped by my house and gave me a cat stuffed animal.
I think I like this holiday.
~ Kim
Since you found 2 out of 5 babies, does that mean the next blog post will be on Tamale making?
ReplyDeleteI am trying to work on that for you Lindsey - really, I have not forgotten! Ismael is going to try to persuade his mom to teach me how to make her style of bean tamales. But I think it is a lot of work for her, so she is not too excited about doing it... Hopefully, I will post something about tamales soon.
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