Los Reyes Magos

Trip Start Feb 20, 2006
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Trip End Feb 18, 2007


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Friday, January 5, 2007

after the madness of christmas and new years, the spanish aren't quite finished - on the night of the 5th of january the reyes magos, or three magic kings arrive in town. the kings come and bring the kids presents - they don't give many gifts at christmas here, instead gifts are bought by the three kings in january.

so of course there was a parade. there's ALWAYS a parade :)

the kids and their parents all get out on the streets to watch the kings arrive at about 9pm. there is a huge parade through the streets with dancers and puppets and camels and floats (and fairly inexplicably a fire truck and the barcelona tourist bus, covered in fairy lights...).

first the star arrives, with a few angels on it announcing the arrival of the kings 01. shepards
01. shepards
 . then the minions, troups of dancers, come down the street, one 'ethnic group' for each king (they're still struggling with political correctness - only here would it be acceptable to put black make-up and grass skirts of people and pass them off as 'african', especially when there is a fairly sizeable population of ACTUAL african people living in the city...)

then the kings arrive on the back of huge floats, covered in people who throw candy into the crowds. and walking along the edges of the parade the whole time are people dressed in sheets (shepards!) who collect the letters that the kids have written to the kings telling them what gifts they want.

right at the end of the parade is the obligatory lighting of flares and chasing of children with fire - the signifigance of this was lost on me - i think they just like burning things and scaring children with fire...

then everyone heads off home to put the sugared-up, hyperactive kids to bed. and SOMEHOW, suddenly, eveyone in the city has a ladder in their hand.

i have no idea. but walking home through the huge crowds, everyone was carrying a stepladder. they obviously are used for something, as they featured prominantly in the parade as well, but i can not for the life of me figure out where all the stepladders were suddenly produced from at the end of the parade. and why people were carrying them through the city... mental.

love it :)
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