The twelve days of Christ­mas begin on Decem­ber 25^th and ends on Jan­u­ary 5^th, but Jan­u­ary 6^th is tra­di­tion­ally the last day of the Christ­mas sea­son, is when we cel­e­brate the feast of the Epiphany or Three Kings Day.

If you are Puerto Rican then you have to cel­e­brate “Los Reyes”.   After Christ­mas put a statue of the three Kings on your din­ning room table or under the Christ­mas tree so the kids know it’s not over yet “fal­tan los Reyes”.   Cel­e­brate it Puerto Rican style, that is have the kids cut grass or green­ery on Jan­u­ary 5^th and put it in a box under their bed.   Put a small gift from Los Reyes in the box once they fall asleep, and don’t for­get too throw away the grass.   Have a spe­cial “Dia de Reyes meal that day. Take pic­tures of the kids and their boxes.  Later after the feast fol­low the tra­di­tion to sing a “Los Reyes” song.

On Three Kings Day is when the chil­dren receive the major­ity of their gifts from the Three Kings rather then from Santa Claus at Christ­mas.   Before going to bed the chil­dren place their old shoe boxes filled with grass or hay under their bed for the camels with a wish list on top for the Three Kings.  In the morn­ing the box is filled with toys and gifts from the Three Kings.

Accord­ing to leg­end based on scrip­ture this day com­mem­o­rates the Three Wise Men, Mel­chior, Gas­par, and Bal­tazar, who fol­lowed the star to Beth­le­hem, bring­ing gifts of gold, frank­in­cense and myrrh.   They travel to Beth­le­hem, and along the way encoun­tered King Herod, whom they tell of the birth of the new King.   Herod orders them to find the baby and return to tell him where the baby could be found so that he may pay homage.  After being warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod because he planned on killing the baby, they returned to their own coun­tries using another way to travel home.

Why do the scrip­tures make such a big deal out of when the Kings came and not when the shep­herds or oth­ers vis­ited? It’s because the “Kings” ( Wise Men or Magi ) who brought gifts to the baby Jesus were the first Gen­tiles ( non-Jews ) to acknowl­edge Jesus as “King” and in doing so, the first to reveal that Jesus came for all people.

Los Reyes Magos, from Per­sian magu, mean­ing magi­cian; mem­bers of a priestiy caste of ancient Medes and Per­sians; name is applied also to the wise men in the Bible who fol­lowed a star to Beth­le­hem; the Bible story does not name them nor give their num­ber, but Chris­t­ian tra­di­tion from about the 7^th cen­tury names the three Mel­chior, Gas­par, and Bal­tazar; their bod­ies are said to have been brought to Con­stan­tino­ple by Empress Helen, mother of Con­stan­tine, then taken to Milan and finally to Cologne in 1162 by Fred­er­ick Bar­barossa; since that time they have been called the Tree Kings of Cologne.

Dur­ing the Hol­i­day sea­son fam­i­lies enjoy some tra­di­tional hol­i­day dishes which are shared with friends and fam­ily. there are so many dif­fer­ent foods cooked that it turns into a feast .