Festivals of Light , winter celebrations from around the world

Epiphany / 3 Kings Day

Spain :

How Spain's Three Kings Festival is Celebrated

Celebrated over two days, Spain’s annual Three Kings Festival (Fiesta de los Reyes) features colourful street parades, a delicious cake with a surprise hidden inside and a vibrant display of brightly illuminated costumes.

On the evening of January 5th every year, Spanish towns and cities are given over to the colourful parades of the Dia de los Reyes, or the Kings’ Day – a celebration of the arrival of the three wise men in Bethlehem after Jesus’ birth. Mechanised floats bearing effigies of Melchior (Arabia), Caspar (the Orient) and Balthazar (Africa) – or real life versions of the wise men played by members of the local council – and various other brightly-costumed participants trundle down major streets; as they pass, they throw out handfuls of sweets that rain down on the spectators gathered to watch their grand entry into the town.

The sweets are supposedly just for kids, for whom this annual holiday has become the biggest deal for. But given Spaniards’ love of a freebie, you’ll see plenty of adults with upturned umbrellas trying to catch as many as possible, too. In major destinations such as Madrid and Barcelona, the sweet-throwing Kings’ parades attract crowds of hundreds of thousands and are televised across the country, but every Spanish town and city stages some kind of celebration on January 5th. The atmosphere is friendly and family orientated – a little like Semana Santa but minus the atmosphere of sombre religiosity – and the parades usually happen early evening so young children can watch them before going to bed.

The three kings or wise men perform the same role as Santa Claus at Christmas, so on the evening of the 5th children are supposed to leave a cleaned pair of shoes outside their doors for the nocturnal visitors to fill with gifts. In fact, a 2015 survey by Spanish toymakers association AEFJ showed that the colourful kings, or Magis as they’re sometimes called, are far more popular than Papa Noel amongst Spanish children: 68% said they preferred receiving presents from the wise men, with only 27% rooting for Father Christmas. Just as with Santa, children write letters to the kings and are encouraged to leave snacks for their exhausted camels before going to bed on the 5th. Good kids get presents and bad kids are supposed to receive a lump of coal.
For many Spanish families, January 6th is an important public holiday in which everyone comes together to watch the children unwrap their second load of presents in as many weeks. There is abundant eating and drinking and the traditional cake is called the Roscon de Reyes, a circular sweet bread sprinkled with sugar and dried fruits. Embedded inside is a plastic little king or queen and whoever finds it is monarch for the day, meaning they are entitled to be waited on hand and foot. Hidden inside the cake is also a bean, the unfortunate recipient of which has to buy the Roscon the following year. That might not be such a bad thing though, as some bakeries have been known to bake diamonds and cheques worth thousands of euros into the cakes, as well as mini monarchs and beans.

















Mallorca :

https://www.mallorca-spotlight.com/news/2016/12/mallorca-christmas-cavalcade
to bad this video does not show the arrival of the kings in the harbor




















Canary Islands :



all those parades need , is giant balloons .










Italy :








in Italy you have the 3 kings like in other places , but the tradition is that they were in a hurry to find the newborn king ,so it was Bafana the kind witch who delivered presents to the good children
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Befana#:~:text=In Italian folklore, Befana (pronounced,: Festa dell'Epifania).

Epiphany :
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Epiphany_(holiday)
https://www.hellotravel.com/events/epiphany-festival
https://thepointsguy.com/2018/01/three-kings-day-celebrated-around-the-world/

Peru :
https://www.kuodatravel.com/the-epiphany-or-three-kings-day-in-peru/


Ukrain:


love the music of this one , but the video is to long

The Catholics celebrate this Christian holiday on January 6th, the Orthodox Christians do the same on January 19th because of the difference between the calendars. Epiphany (or Theophany) is considered to be one of the all-honored Christian holidays in the world, and Ukraine is not an exception. Actually, the very Epiphany closes the Ukrainian Christmas season at all.
As we know, on this day the baptism of Jesus Christ was held. According to the Gospel of Matthew, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in a shape of dove. The christening occurred by the John the Baptist in the Jordan River, so this fact gave the folk name to the holiday of Epiphany. In Ukraine Epiphany is considered to be a very honorable holiday. The Ukrainians believe the winter wedding season starts on Epiphany and tills until the Lent. So this winter time is mostly for visiting and entertaining.
The main sense of Epiphany in Ukraine is the water consecration. It occurs in the local churches. But another ritual usually takes place near small lakes, on the river banks and basins. In fact, the Ukrainians and Russians believe water this day becomes holy and acquires the special power. Before the ritual, people make large holes in the shape of cross in the ice (the usual temperature is about 20 Fahrenheit) in order to bathe in this icy water. Then the Christian priests read the prayers and put their crosses into the cold water. After the consecration, this water is believed to be holy and to give health with vigorous energy, this Epiphany water also believed to be a powerful medicine and cure for every ailment. People usually take this sanctified water home in bottles and keep over the year. It is considered mysteries with no logical explanation, but sanctified water on Epiphany can be kept for a long time and doesn’t get spoiled at all.
According to this custom, there is another Epiphany tradition here – the tradition of ice-hole dipping. The Orthodox priests bless the icy water, and believers dip themselves under the water for three times. This may symbolize to wipe out people’s sins, in order to purify themselves, and a symbolic person’s rebirth. The power of spirit does wonders – as a matter of fact, people have never fallen ill after such holy bathing.














France , Germany , Hungary ,Spain


Germany :

Sternsinger :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_singers













Bavarian horn sled race: The traditional horn sled race at Garmisch-Partenkirchen involves speeds of up to 90 kilometers per hour as the traditional wooden sleds hurtle chaotically down the "Hohen Weg" path. This year, 89 teams have signed up for the 1,000 meter race. However, for the first time in the race's history, helmets are mandatory this year.

OMG no no no you would not see me getting in that ice cold water. No way, now how, huh uh.