Three Kings’ Day – Dia de los Reyes Magos

A day for children to get presents, a tradition in my country

Although I am not religious, I was raised in a predominantly Catholic country where the Church traditions are closely intertwined with the popular culture. Our Christmas celebrations didn’t include gift giving…that was done on January the 6^th in celebration of Gaspar, Melchor and Baltazar…otherwise known as the Three Wise Men or the Three Kings.

This was a holiday that was strictly for children and I have indelible memories of stepping out into the street and seeing all the neighborhood children showing off the new toys brought to them by the Three Kings.

I have particularly fond memories of that although my parents were somewhat frugal and didn’t shower me with toys like the other neighbor children. I was always envious of them but one year we went to a party given by the Corp of Engineers and they had a raffle. One of the prizes was a Lionel model train and I won it. You can’t imagine how thrilled I was…I did for once have a toy that was better and more expensive than any of the toys the other children got that Dia de los Reyes.

Much to my chagrin, I never even got to take the train set out of the box because my selfish father put it away only to sell it the following December and I got to see it running in one of the display windows of a store in my hometown. I still don’t know what he did with the money he got for it.

The following year, amazingly enough, I went to the same party but this one time I won the first prize at the raffle; which was a Schwinn bicycle. It was magnificent and I would have the kids in my neighborhood come over to look at it...when they would ask me if I intended to ride it I would answer that as soon as I could reach the pedals I would. I really don’t remember how we managed to take it home as we were riding the bus in those days. But what really got forever printed in my mind was my father’s reluctance to let me ride it. It sat there in my bedroom all year…granted, I could not reach the pedals quite well and it was a heavy bike for a scrawny kid like me.

Then the following December came and the bicycle was gone. My dad had taken it to the local department store and sold it to them. Only this time we found out what he did with the money: he gambled it away in a cock fight.