If you’re already packing away the Christmas ornaments along with your holiday spirits, think again.
Mexico’s seasonal festivities roll on for another four weeks, with Dia de los Tres Reyes celebrations on January 6, and the Christmas season finally wrapping up February 2 on the Dia de la Candelaria.
Mexican children look forward to January 6 with even greater relish than Christmas itself. Epiphany – known here as Three Kings Day – recalls the revelation of the Messiah as represented by the arrival of the Three Wisemen in Bethlehem and the special gifts they delivered to the Christ Child.
Mexican youngsters customarily prepare for the secretive arrival of the gift-bearing Reyes Magos (Magi) by setting out their shoes beside the household nativity scene before tucking into bed on the night of January 5. Inside the shoes they leave letters to the Wisemen with a wish list of holiday gifts. When the little ones awake the next morning they rush to the scene to discover what toys and other goodies have been deposited while they slept.
During the first week of January Mexican bakeries and grocery outlets are stocked with Rosca de Reyes, a crown-shaped lightly sweetened bread decorated with jewel-like candied fruits that is the traditional Kings Day holiday treat.
Before the loaves go in the oven, bakers slip one or more tiny plastic or ceramic figures of infants into the raw dough as a symbol of the Christ Child who was hidden from the bloodthirsty King Herod. The slicing of the rosca generates great excitement, for anyone who cuts a slice studded with a baby will be designated as a godparent of the Baby Jesus and by extension, host for a traditional Candlemas tamale feast on February 2.