For anyone who doesn’t know, Spanish Christmas is celebrated on 6th January which is when many of the children receive their presents. This has changed somewhat in recent years with many parents giving the children some presents on Christmas Eve too so they don’t get everything the day before they go back to school!!
Tradition says that the three kings “Reyes Magos” bring the presents to the children on the night of the 5th January. This day is also celebrated with a parade ( Cabalgata de Los Reyes) which takes place in every city, town or village throughout Spain. Some of the parades in the larger cities are watched by thousands of people and often televised live.
Our local cavalcade in Manilva is relatively small but still worth seeing, especially for the kids. This years parade will start in Castillo at around 6 pm, before transferring to Sabinillas, at about 7 – 7.30pm and finally up to Manilva at about 8.30 – 9 pm. Please note that all timings are approximate…… but don’t always assume it will be late…. we went round half an hour after the supposed time one year and had missed it!!!!
The cavalcade normally consists of at least three, beautifully decorated floats,(one for each king), various performers and musicians, and, of course, the Manilva band. As the procession wends its way through the streets, the Kings and others on the floats, hurl tonnes of sweets into the waiting crowd of children and adults. Manilva council have confirmed that there will be some 2000 kilos of sweets thrown across the three parades!!!
It’s normally “all out war” to grab as many sweets as possible. I suggest you take a couple of carrier bags at least…..if you’ll lucky, the kings sometimes aim straight for your bag!!!
Please be aware as well, that, many of the roads are closed and cleared of parked cars for this event. Parking restrictions have been posted along the routes with the time that the cars have to be removed.
Some pics from last year…..
