I've seen the king!!

Not Elvis.

We actually saw the 3 kings. In Britain they're known as the 3 wise men who brought gifts to baby Jesus; here they're called "3 reyes magos" or 3 wizard kings, one from Europe, one from the East and one from Africa. They were supposed to arrived today... at least today is when is celebrated here and, as you may know by now, anything that is worth a fiesta deserves have it done properly.

The tradition is that kids send a letter to the kings telling them that they've been good kids and asking for some presents, long list, then tonight they place their shoes on the balcony or near a window or garden, together with some biscuits for the kings, grass and water for the camels (it was the Middle East, after all) and the next day the food disapears and there's some presents.

When I was young we didn't have Father Christmas but people give each other presents in the name of baby Jesus, it was great but not really magical as the 3 kings days. That was totally awesome.

I keep the tradition for P. while I also incorporated Father Christmas, so for years he's got 2 sets of presents. Although we never did the other part of the tradition, the one that said that bad behaved children get a piece of coal on their shows instead of presents!!


So, as usual, P. wrote his letter last week and we posted in a special golden box at the local post office. That was a change because in Bristol we had to go and post a letter to them in Israel, which probably amused or puzzle some postal workers somewhere.

I forgot all about it and we spend the day screwing and tiding up my books because I need to learn some basic grammar for Monday.

At around 6pm P and I went to the supermarket, which is literally around the corner and found that the street was being closed by the police and there was a bit of a crowd already there all along the street. We though it was weird and started to speculate the reason for it, maybe a parade of some sort? Then I realise that they were far too many kids around and some of them were beyond themselves with excitement, so I said to P. that maybe they were waiting for the kings to arrive.

Well. P. my son, is an sceptic and a self-described non-believer; he told his school priest last year that he didn't want to have first communion because he believes in Darwin. So, he looked at me with a funny face as if I was totally mad, well beyond my normal madness.

We decided to wait there and try to see what was going on. The crowd grew stronger and at more or less half an hour latter a police motorbike brigade appeared with lights on and all as they do when they have bigwigs to take care of. Then a bunch of mysterious looking guys and girls with long robes and their faces covered with dark scarves in the manner of the Bedouins went by giving the children little flags to wave, with the local council logo welcoming the kings to Sabadell.

Even P. was impress.

Then a police car followed by a horse-cart with a guy dressed as a sort of Aladdin from a British pantomime to whom children handed their letters as he went by.

P. then panicked and told me that he's not sure if his letter will find its way to the king as it appeared that you have to give it to their "handler", PR person or whoever this guy was.

After that a motorcycle group in old motorbikes, like the ones from the 60's, mod's style went by, decorated with balloons, also a bunch of very old small cars went by, both were local clubs of bikes and car collectors.

Then, after a pause, as the horse-cart had to go very slowly to allow all the kids to hand in their letters, a carnival exploded. A bunch of lovely girls dressed as in Egyptian fantasy, with huge colourful fans, went dancing, then a truck with a gigantic silver star (like the one that the kings had to follow to find baby Jesus) followed by another truck filled with children dressed as garden gnomes throwing sweets at the delirious children (and some parents) some of whom were well prepared with carrier bags to bring them home. Not handing sweets, mind you, actually trowing them around with such an energy that I feared for my glasses!!! One actually hit me on the head and I swear I saw stars as the cartoons do!!!!

Then, in a huge truck decorated as if the planetary system, it came one of the kings, the one with a white beard. He was great but the best thing by far was the children's faces, including my skeptic one, with eyes shining with pure unadulterated magic.

After that there was bunch of musicians dressed as royal astronomers, at least according to P, who also said that they looked a bit like Henry VIII without the gut. So that must have bee the European king. Here you can see a glimpse of him and his... elves? assistants? You can also see some children with bags ready for more sweets.

Then another big truck with children throwing sweets followed by another king. This time all in blue hues and more oriental style, but "oriental" in that panto sense again. Followed by another truck with kids throwing sweets.

Finally, and terribly politically incorrect, a bunch of people with their faces painted black as in those all movies of Al Johnson went dancing with huge banners, preceding the black king, and the children favourite: Baltazar. He was followed by some people all dressed u with lovely red capes and riding beautiful horses. More sweets were thrown.

Then the local firefighters, the ambulance, the forest firefighters and, last but not least, the street cleaners with their carts specially decorated for the occasion closed the parade while cleaning all the confetti and sweet wrappers around.

I think it'll be a good idea to the council to offer some ritalin after the parade (that's the drug giving to ADD's children) because some of the kids were in a totally high trip with all the sugar and excitement. I know I was!!

I've heard that every village in Spain, no matter how small, has their own parade, although the biggest are usually on the bigger cities. In Barcelona the kings actually arrive by ship and the parade starts at the port. We saw on tv the parade in Madrid and it was awesome.

Now, we're back home, P. already left his shoes on the balcony together with some biscuits he baked himself. I bet he's going to wake up at 6am tomorrow morning, that if he manages to sleep at all!

I do miss you, guys, but living here is great fun.