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Da de los Reyes Magos (Day of the Magi Kingsthe Three Wise Men)
The day of the Three Kings, also called Epiphany, is celebrated in many homes around the world on Jan 6th
each year.
Since the Three Kings ride camels, the night before Three Kings Day, on January 5th, kids leave their shoes or
an empty box stuff with straw or grass either outside their home or under their bed, to give the magical camels
something to eat. In the morning, the straw is gone and little toys and candies are left in its place.
This holiday tradition is not just for kids. Some Hispanic traditions include the relatives! Close relatives also put
a box under their beds filled with grass or straw for the camels. In the morning, the grass is gone. In its place are
gifts for the children in the family.
There is a special bread that is baked for Three Kings Day called Rosca/Roscn bread (Roscn de Reyes). This
bread is shaped like a crown. Each loaf of Rosca bread has a prize baked inside. Legend says ... Good luck will
come to the person who finds the prize.
In some places, Three Kings Day is called "Little Christmas", possibly because of the little prizes that are found
in shoes and in Rosca bread, on this day of remembrance.
Many children write a letter to their favorite rey (king) telling them the good things theyve done during the
past year and ask the king to bring them gifts, much like how American children write letters to Santa Clause.

El Rey Melchor

El Rey Baltazar

El Rey Gaspar

El Rey Melchor was the Sultan of

Arabia. He was the oldest of the
Magi and was a small and gentle
man. Melchor had a long white
beard and wore elegant crimson
robes. His gift was gold which was
used by the Hebrews for the
Temple and was plentiful in the
time of David and Solomon. Gold
was not coined until after the reign
of King David, was an article
of commerce and was sold by
weight. It is rumored that Melchor
brought many other priceless gifts
as well.

El Rey Baltazar was a Nubian

King and ruler of Ethiopia.
Baltazar was dressed in exquisite
robes. His gift was myrrh, a
precious and aromatic resin that
comes from the bark of thorny
African trees and symbolized
suffering. Myrrh was a precious
commodity in the Middle East. It
was one of the ingredients of the
holy ointment, and of the
embalming substance. It is used in
medicine and as a perfume.
Legend tells us that Baltazar died
soon after in the presence of the
other Wise Men.

El Rey Gaspar was Emperor of the

Orient and ruled over all oriental
lands. His clothes were gilded in
gold. King Gaspar's gift was
frankincense, an exceedingly
aromatic gum used in the sacred
incense for the Temple service.
It is distilled from a tree in Arabia.
Frankincense was a priceless gift
for Kings and symbolized prayer.
It was burned in temples to honor
God. Gaspar is said to have also
brought many other fine gifts for
the Christ Child. It is said that
Gaspar traveled the furthest.

Roscn de Reyes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTt2q9qfyXM

Los Reyes
Preparing for the kings (animated short)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO3ZkCe-egM
Answer the following questions based on what youve learned about El Da de los Reyes Magos.
1.

When is the holiday celebrated? __________________________________________________

2. What do children leave out for the kings? _____________________________________________

3. What do they leave for the camels? __________________________________________________
4. What is Roscn de Reyes? __________________________________________________

Match the king to their description.

A. Gaspar
5.

B. Baltazar

C. Melchor.

_____ Wore crimson (red) robes.

6. _____ Wore clothes made with real gold.

7. _____ Wore beautiful robes.
8. _____ His gift was gold.
9. _____ His gift was myrrh.
10. _____ His gift was frankincense.
11. _____ He died soon after giving his gift.
12. _____ He traveled the furthest.
13. _____ He was a small man.

Define:
14. Myrrh: _____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
15. Frankincense: _______________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

Las Fallas
Whilst thousands of festivals are celebrated all over Spain throughout the year there are only a few
that bring overseas visitors specifically for the event. The Fallas fiesta which takes place in Valencia from
15th to the 19th of March every year is undoubtedly one of those super-festivals attracting many foreign
visitors as well as Spanish tourists from all over the country.
San Jos (Saint Joseph), the patron saint of carpenters, is the official focus for the festival. It all
started back in the Middle Ages when carpenters used to hang up planks of wood called parots in the
winter to support their candles when they were working. At the onset of spring these pieces of wood
would be burned as a way of celebrating the end of dark, winter working days. After a while they began to
put clothing on the parot and then started to try to make it identifiable with a well-known local
personality. These became the forerunners of the contemporary ninots, the enormous cardboard,
wooden, polyurethane, Styrofoam, cork, plaster and papier mach figures of today. The authorities later
decided to link the burning of the parots with Saint Josephs Day to try to stop it getting out of control!.
Nowadays, each neighborhood has an organizing committee, the casal faller, who raise the necessary
finances for constructing the ninots. There is even an area of the city called the Ciutat Fallera where
whole groups of workers and designers spend months creating all the incredible towering tableaux. The
ninots, which are placed at key places throughout the city, are nowadays often cruel satirical lampoons of
well-known Spanish and international celebrities or politicians.

A Day at the Fallas

If you decide to go to the Fallas festival prepare for an early start. Each day begins with a startling
wake-up call called La Despert at the ridiculous time (in Spain) of 8am. Youll just love being woken by
brass bands marching down the streets accompanied by those preposterously loud firecrackers; which
themselves activate car and shop alarms just to make sure youre ready for a days fun.
All day, youll see processions and hear explosions and then at 2pm La Masclet begins when
there are organized pyrotechnical explosions all over the city, especially in the citys main square, the
Plaza Ayuntamiento. At first youll think theyre earth-shattering but theyre just an appetizer for what will
come later.
On each night there is a firework display in the old river bed and they escalate in degrees of
spectacle until the final night, 19th March, the Night of Fire La Nit de Foc. This is the famous event
when the enormous creations are destroyed. Neighborhoods will have their own falla infantile for the
children at about 10pm and then, at around midnight, the neighborhood fallas will begin. The final,
grandest fire, in the Plaza Ayuntamiento, wont get under way until 1am at the earliest with huge crowds
waiting in eager anticipation of the burning. The ninots will all have been stuffed full with fireworks, the
street lights switched off and the firemen will be in position when the 20 to 30 foot models, which took
months of painstaking construction, will be razed to the ground. Each year, one ninot is spared the ordeal
as a result of a public vote: the rest suffer a spectacular fate.

Noisy Like Nowhere Else

However loud you think this is going to be youll be wrong. There is no way of beginning to
describe the amount of noise generated. Pregnant women are forbidden from attending and each year
people are injured or faint. It is true that you should keep your mouth open to allow the sound to escape
and not echo around your head or something like that but be prepared to feel the ground shake
beneath your feet and your head to spin uncontrollably. This is an adrenaline rush with few equals and a
completely unique experience.
And please dont think you can rest up during the day to prepare yourself for the evenings
bombardments. After youve been unceremoniously startled awake at 8 oclock the whole of Valencia is
one enormous street party, with various parades, pageants, beauty shows, paella competitions and
bullfights all over the city.
Whilst photos of the event give you some idea what the effigies are like they cannot portray the
atmosphere of the city during this crazy fiesta. The following video goes some way to giving you a feel for

street life during the festival. Youd be forgiven for thinking you were watching a news report on TV from a
war zone!

Las fallas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOClxU6QAyc&index=25&list=PLC8sf6477S1nOqCV1VHT4S_Wgcf4MkCU

1) What day is it celebrated? _____________________________________________________

2) How long is it celebrated? ______________________________________________________
3) Where does las fallas take place? ________________________________________________
4) What is a ninot?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
5) What is La Nit de Foc and what happens on that night?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
6) What other events happen during this festival?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

St. Johns Day El Da de San Juan

The evening of 23 June, Saint John's Eve, is the eve of celebration before the Feast Day of Saint John the
Baptist. This feast day is one of the very few saints' days which commemorates the anniversary of the birth,
rather than the death, of the saint being honored.
The Feast of Saint John closely coincides with the June solstice, also referred to as Midsummer in the
Northern hemisphere. The Christian holy day is fixed at 24 June; but in most countries festivities are mostly
held the night before, on Saint John's Eve.
Traditions
Fire features in many of the celebrations, with people gathering together and creating large bonfires from any
kind of wood, such as old furniture, and sharing food and drinks while teens and children jump over the fires.
Parties are often organized at beaches, where bonfires are lit and a set of firework displays usually take
place. In Alicante, since 1928, the bonfires of Saint John were developed into elaborate constructions
inspired by the Falles, or Fallas, of Valencia.
Midsummer tradition is also especially strong in northern areas of Spain, such
as Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria where one can easily identify the rituals that reveal the pagan beliefs
widespread throughout Europe in Neolithic times. These beliefs pivot on three basic ideas: the importance of
medicinal plants, especially in relation to health, youth and beauty; the protective character of fire to ward men
off evil spirits and witches and, finally, the purifying, miraculous effects of water. What follows is a summary
of Galician traditions surrounding St. John's festival in relation to these three elements.
1.

Medicinal plants: Traditionally, women collect several species of plants on St. John's eve. These vary from area
to area, but mostly include fennel, different species of fern, rue, rosemary, dog rose, lemon verbena, St John's
wort, mallows, laburnum, foxgloves and elder flowers. In some areas, these are arranged in a bunch and hung
in doorways. In most others, they are dipped in a vessel with water and left outside exposed to the dew of
night until the following morning (o dia de San Xoan -St. John's day), when people use the resulting flower
water to wash their faces.

2.

Water: Tradition holds it that the medicinal plants mentioned above are most effective when dipped in water
collected from seven different springs.

3. Fire: Bonfires are lit, usually around midnight both on beaches and inland, so much so that one

usually cannot tell the smoke from the mist common in this Atlantic corner of Iberia at this time of the
year, and it smells burnt everywhere. Occasionally, a dummy is placed at the top, representing a witch
or the devil. When it is relatively safe to jump over the bonfire, it is done three times (although it could
also be nine or any odd number) for good luck at the cry of "meigas fora" (witches off!).It is also
common to have Queimada (drink), a beverage resulting from setting alight Galician grappa mixed
with sugar, coffee beans and pieces of fruit, which is prepared while chanting an incantation against
evil spirits. there are popular sayings and magic spells to make this ritual more effective, such as this one
in Galician:
Salto por riba
do lume de San Xon,
para que non me morda
cadela nin can
nin bicho vivinte
que ande polo chan.
(I jump over the St John fire so I wont get bitten by dogs or creatures crawling on the ground)

Videos:
Info https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqzon7DQKz0
Yez video: Santiago de Compostela https://youtu.be/YF9knCiTCmk
Yez video: Santiago de Compostela (kids) https://youtu.be/ztdpgaPAYAc

Based on what you read and saw about St. Johns Day, answer the following.
1.

When is this holiday celebrated? _____________________________________________

2.

What is the purpose of the medical plants? What do people do with the medical

plants?

3.

4.

What do people do with the water?

What is the purpose of fire? What do people do with the fire?

La Tomatina tomato fight in Buol near Valencia

happens every year on the last Wednesday in
August though the partying starts earlier in the
week. The highlight of the festival is the tomato
fight which takes place between 11am and 1pm
on that day. The event has become one of the
highlights on Spains summer festivals calendar
with thousands of people flocking to this little
Valencian town for this chaotic event. Such are
the numbers going to La Tomatina that the event has become a victim of its own success. The sheer
number of people means that its extremely difficult to get anywhere near the central area where the
tomato lorries arrive so you may well find yourself a few streets away from the main action. Never mind,
there are plenty people in the same boat and the street partying goes on no matter where you are.

History of La Tomatina
The origins of La Tomatina arent clear with several theories explaining how Bunyol has become home to
the worlds biggest tomato fight. However, one suggests that it dates back to 1945 when an annual
parade of enormous figures with big heads (Gigantes y Cabezudos) was passing through the streets of
Bunyol. It seems that some youngsters tried to join in the parade and accidentally knocked over one of
the giants who got to his feet and started swinging out at everyone around him. In retaliation the
youngsters grabbed some tomatoes from a nearby vegetable stall and started throwing them at him until
the police arrived to break things up.
The following year on the same last Wednesday of August these young people returned to the town hall
square and started another tomato fight using their own tomatoes. Again the police intervened and in
subsequent years the local council tried to ban the El Da de la Tomatina but with little success as the
event continued to grow year after year reaching the ludicrous size it is today.

Practical Information
Accommodation Bunyol is a small village of some 9000 people whose population swells to some
30,000 on the day of La Tomatina. There is hardly any accommodation in the village itself so most budget
visitors stay in a cheap hostel in Valencia. Alternatively there are plenty nice hotels in Valencia but youll
need to book well in advance.
Another option is to head for the small family-run campsite called La Granjita in Chiva which is only 10km
north-east of Bunyol. The owners provide you with the tent, bed, sheets, towels as well as breakfast and
an evening meal if you want it. It also has a small pool which is so inviting once you get back from the
fiesta.
What to Wear Whatever you wear is going to get destroyed so make sure you take a change of
clothes for the return train journey. We actually found that a snorkel and mask were well worth taking!
Afterwards you can try to clean up a little at the public showers near the river but these are generally
packed.

Rules of La Tomatina
In spite of the mayhem there actually are a few rules and regulations that need to be adhered to during
La Tomatina in order to ensure that the maximum number of people get the maximum enjoyment from
the day. These rules are set out by the Bunyol Town Council:

It is illegal to bring any kind of bottles or other objects that could cause an accident.
You must not tear t-shirts.
Tomatoes must be crushed before throwing so that they dont hurt anybody.
You must be careful to avoid the lorries which carry the tomatoes.
As soon as you hear the 2nd banger you must stop throwing tomatoes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Had8to1Hr3M&index=12&list=PLC8sf6477S1nOqCV1VHT4S_W-gcf4MkCU

1) Where is the Tomatina celebrated?

2) When is the Tomatina?

3) What is the Tomatina?

4) Why do they celebrate the Tomatina?

5) When does the Tomatina start? When does it end?

6) Who celebrates the Tomatina?