It is tradition in Spain that the “Three kings” or “Reyes Magos” as they are known here, bring the presents to the children on the night of the 5th January. Over the past years, many parents also give children presents on Christmas Eve put ” 3 Kings” is still a big event in Spain.
The highlight of this festival is the Cabalgata de Los Reyes, or the Three Kings Parade, which takes place on the evening of the 5th January. This takes place in every city, town or village throughout Spain with some, especially in the cities, commanding crowds of thousands, with the Kings on horseback or sometimes camels!
Our local cavalcade tonight will start in Castillo at around 5.30 pm, before transferring to Sabinillas, at about 7 pm and finally up to Manilva at about 8.30 pm. Please note that all timings are approximate…… one year we waited until after 10pm for the Manilva parade, but don’t always assume it will be late…. the next year, we went round half an hour after the supposed time and had missed it!!!!
The cavalcade normally consists of three floats, each of which carries one of the ‘Kings” ,there are also various performers and musicians, with the Manilva band always making an appearance. As the procession wends its way through the streets the Kings and others on the floats, hurl tonnes of sweets into the waiting crowd of children and adults. It’s normally “all out war” to grab as many sweets as possible with the adults worse than the kids sometimes!!! My advice, take a couple of carrier bags at least…..if you’ll lucky, the kings sometimes aim straight for your bag!!!
On a sensible note, many of the roads are closed and cleared of parked cars for this event. Parking restrictions have been posted, deadline to have you car out of the way in Sabinillas is 4pm tonight. If you don’t move it, it’ll end up in the pound!!!!
Some pics from last year…..
DF