Soon after our post about Three Kings’ Day, I received the following description from my daughter Libby Martinez (also my co-author) who is spending three years in Madrid with her husband:
“Three Kings Day here is as important (or more important) than Christmas Day…you can even sit on one of the Three Kings laps and ask them for gifts like we would ask Santa for gifts!
This past Tuesday evening was the Cabalgata de Reyes (Cavalcade of the Three Kings) which is a massive parade that takes place in downtown Madrid, complete with huge floats, and candy being thrown to all the kids…a huge family event…and on TV they even show the Three Kings arriving earlier in the day on an Iberia airplane (which is their version of Southwest)…too funny! We happened to be down at the parade route earlier in the day by accident (as we happen to often be in many places by accident these days) so we saw them setting everything up and the music was playing etc. (9 times out of 10 the music playing anywhere is American music and this was no exception…and that includes listening to Neil Diamond sing Christmas carols in our neighborhood grocery store last week)…next year we’re going to try and catch the full parade!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalcade_of_Magihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalcade_of_Magi
I’ve always loved the idea of the Feast of the Epiphany, also known as Three Kings’ Day or Los Tres Reyes, the end of the Christmas season. The night before is often celebrated as Twelfth Night. In part I’m attached to this celebration because I love the word epiphany from the Greek meaning a manifestation or striking insight. 
