Hola amigos, Jim and May here from Spanish and Go.
And today we're going to talk about
Día de Los Reyes.
Day of the Three Kings here in Mexico.
Let's get started.
So today is Three Kings’ Day in Mexico, and it's such a unique tradition that we had
to tell you about it.
It is a religious holiday, but the vast majority of Mexicans are Catholic.
So, it makes for a very important tradition here in Mexico.
So, El Día de Los Reyes marks the end of the holiday season here in Mexico which started
on December 12th with the day of the Virgin Mary.
Which is like a long party that starts in December and ends today.
The worst time to be in Mexico if you want to get good sleep because there are fireworks,
and parties, and mariachi all over the place at all hours of the day and night.
But it's the perfect time to visit if you really want to learn many many things about
the culture of Mexico.
Absolutely.
So what do you know, Jaime, about Día de Los Reyes?
Two things stand out to me.
Every year we're here.
I always remember the bread.
There's a special bread they eat every year on the three Three Kings’ Day.
Also, I know that in some parts of Mexico kids write letters to the Three Kings for
presents that are delivered today, not on Christmas.
Sometimes don't even talk about Santa to their kids because they have the Three Kings or
Los Tres Reyes Magos.
Now, why would Los Tres Reyes bring presents to kids here in Mexico?
The story says that there were these three kings or also known as the “Three Wise Men”
who followed the Estrella de Belén which guided them to find Jesus.
So when he was born, he was gifted three things by these Three Wise Men which were oro, mirra,
e incienso.
Ok.
Gold, myrrh, and incense.
So now we're going to talk about the bread “la Rosca de Reyes.”
Have you tried it?
Have you?
I have tried it.
Yes.
And I'm not a huge fan of bread, but this is an interesting bread.
It has fruit on it, and the most interesting thing about this bread is that inside there
are muñecos de niño Dios.
Little baby Jesuses.
So, what we do with the bread — you cut a piece of the rosca, and if you find the
little bebé Dios o niño Dios as we call it, then you are some kind of like a padrino
to the baby and that means that on February the 2nd, you have to host the party which
is the date when Jesus was introduced or brought to church and presented in church.
Now, before there used to be only one baby Jesus in the rosca, but since you know throwing
a party sometimes is more expensive than you might think then nowadays there's like four
or five or six baby Jesuses in the rosca so the party is shared — like you're not the
only one buying that the tamales it's you and someone else.
Yeah, it's a good thing to find the baby Jesus.
And the rosca comes in all kinds of sizes here everything from pretty small to huge
for big parties.
So there's four things about the rosca that represent important things about this holiday.
And the first one is the fruit on the rosca.
Do you know what that means?
Yeah.
So the fruit on the rosca represents the jewels on the crown of the king that was going around
and trying to kill baby Jesus when he was born.
Now, why is there baby Jesuses inside the rosca hiding there?
There are baby Jesuses hiding inside the bread as a symbol of Joseph and Mary protecting
and hiding the baby Jesus from this King who was trying to go around and kill him.
There's a couple other things about the bread though that are symbolic for this holiday.
Why is it round?
Because it represents the love of God which is infinite.
And it doesn't have an end or a beginning.
Eating the bread represents something itself.
What's that about May?
Communion.
So that's Día de Reyes here in Mexico.
We wanted to share this with you.
This is a secular channel.
We're not trying to push any sort of religion here.
We just wanted to share this important tradition with you.
It's a big deal here in Mexico.
And now we're going to cut the rosca and we're going to find out if we get to throw a party
on February 2nd or not.
Thank you guys for watching. We hope you enjoyed this video.
Did you know anything about Día de Reyes? Have you ever celebrated?
Let us know in the comments.
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See you soon!
Goodbye!