Day of the Three Wise Men

Day of the Three Wise Men or Día de los Reyes Magos marks the conclusion of the Christmas Holiday Season. On January 6, people celebrate the three Kings visiting Baby Jesus and bringing him gifts.

Christmas itself is very popular in Mexico, if you're interested in reading more about Christmas in general then you can check out my other blog post on it. But, Santa is relatively new in Mexico. People my age know about Santa, but growing up Día de los Reyes Magos was the really important day.

I talked with several Mexican friends about the day and they all told me sweet stories about how excited they were as children. They also explained to me that this day is really for kids.

Like Christmas, Día de los Reyes Magos is a religious holiday deeply routed in the Catholic faith. I've noticed that Christmas has kept a much more religious tone in Mexico than I ever noticed in the US.

Traditionally in Mexico, children leave their shoes outside the door on the night of January 5. The Kings will come by and leave presents that the kids wake up to find.

Some families will go the extra step and dress up as the three Kings. I'm not super close with any families with children in Mexico so I didn't celebrate this holiday with any kids. But I had a friend send me a picture of three 'Kings' dressed up and ready to go on their motorcycles. I thought it was pretty great.

At dinner, families will meet for a meal where everyone eats Rosca together. Rosca is a special sugary bread eaten especially on this day. It looks like this.

Inside the bread, you can find a figurine of the baby Jesus (similar to the bread for Mardi Gras in New Orleans).

Whoever finds the baby Jesus has to buy tamales for everyone in the group.

I shared a rosca with some of my good friends along with some absolutely delicious hot chocolate.

I was lucky and didn't find any baby Jesus in my bread, but it was pretty fun when others did.

Our Rosca had 5 pieces in it. At the end, we put all of the pieces together and it made a little nativity set. The photo credit of this photo goes to my good friend and one of my hosts for the evening.

I was so grateful to my friends at the end of the night. I had a really amazing time with them. I'm continuously impressed with the warmth and kindness of Mexicans. And I'm so blessed to be invited in as a guest in this great Country.

#Holidays