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January 8, 2024MADRID (OSV News) -- For Spanish children, the 12th night of Christmas makes the season magical. During the vigil of Epiphany, on Jan. 5, the Three Kings -- Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar -- bring them gifts as the holiday in Spain culminates with parades across the country.
The feast commemorates the biblical Three Kings who brought gifts to Jesus and worshipped him. During the parades, known in Spanish as "Cabalgata," each king rides a separate platform sitting on a high throne, a horse or a camel, surrounded by his courtiers who throw sweets into the crowd.
In Madrid, the celebration started early as the Three Kings, called Magi, arrived at the St. Mary the Royal of the Almudena Cathedral Jan. 3, where more than 1,000 faithful, mostly children accompanied by their parents and grandparents, gathered to attend the arrival of the Three Wise Men to the capital of Spain.
Presided over by Cardinal José Cobo, the archbishop of Madrid, the ceremony was enlivened by Christmas carols sung by three school and parish choirs. In his initial greeting, the cardinal explained to the children that as their journey from the East began, the diocese wrote a letter to the Magi asking where they would be staying during these days in Spain, since "now, in parishes, (during the) parades ... they have a lot of work." The archdiocese offered them the bishops' house, the San Justo episcopal residence.
"What we like most," the kings explained upon their arrival to the cathedral, "is to tell all the boys and girls, and the fathers and mothers and all the grandfathers and grandmothers, that we love to worship Jesus. Because, if we had not seen Jesus, and had not worshipped him, we would not be able to give gifts."
They asked that the boys and girls, and all families, "pray for a moment in front of Jesus. Because that's what changed our lives."
"If you are here today," Cardinal Cobo said, it is because "the Child Jesus has called you, just as he called the Three Wise Men."
"Jesus is waiting to listen to each of us. The Magi of the East are experts in listening to Jesus. With them we are going to see what Jesus has to say to each one of us," Cardinal Cobo said, kneeling in front of the manger.
On behalf of the Magi, Balthasar, the king representing the African continent, took the floor to thank them for their welcome. In his speech, he said that "one day I met Jesus and found happiness." He told the children that during his visit to Bethlehem, he felt in his heart "a joy like he had never felt" and knew "it was my happiness."
As is the tradition, Spanish children asked the Magi -- not Santa Claus -- for gifts and handed them letters. Six-year-old Marta Sanz, accompanied by her mother and two brothers, asked for a stuffed dog.
The visit from the Three Kings was not the only family celebration in the Archdiocese of Madrid this Christmas season.
On Dec. 31, the feast of the Holy Family, Cardinal Cobo announced the start of a diocesan prayer chain in which an icon with a family prayer "will travel weekly to the homes of the Christian families of the diocese."
"Do not stop promoting moments that, along with the others, are important parts of the family and prayer life of our diocesan community," the cardinal urged.
He stressed that "everything common depends on the support and will of the Christian communities to encourage it, unite and thus continue creating meeting spaces with a synodal feel."