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Tuesday, January 11, 2011

365-11 You can tell its still Christmas season!

In some U.S. Mexican Catholic homes Christmas doesn't stop on Dec. 24 and 25. It continues on with another celebration on Jan. 6 to celebrate Kings Day - when the three kings found and paid homage to the Christ Child. This is when the Kings bread or Rosca de Reyes is served (similar to the one served during Mardi Gras) and includes a small baby Jesus inside the bread.
The person who gets the baby Jesus in their slice of bread gets the honor of hosting the next Christmas season party on Feb. 2 (day of Candelaria or Candlemas) to dress and take up the baby Jesus from his honored place in the manger. He will then be kept in another place of honor all year until next Christmas Eve when he will be put down again to symbolize his birth.
At the local Mexican market you had your choice of baby Jesus statues in case you didn't have one already --

4 comments:

J said...

That's interesting. For us, the Christmas season ends with Epiphany, which you call Kings' Day, on January 6th.

Anonymous said...

Very interesting

Anita said...

Thanks for the information regarding Kings' Day, very enlightening.

Dianne - Bunny Trails said...

How interesting. Somehow it would seem a little unusual to go shopping for baby Jesus. LOL! :D