THE EPIPHANY

Note - Please be aware that below post is a summary from Facebook comments regarding The Epiphany (January 6) around the world.

MEXICO

Tomorrow is día de los reyes. It's a Mexican celebration stemming from the Christian faith. It celebrates the 3 kings who visit Jesus after he is born in the barn. They bring him gifts so children place a shoe at the door and receive presents, in the shoe, in the morning. Then we share a rosca (a large round bread with dried fruit and a baby toy inside) and the person who finds a baby in it hosts a party on Feb. 2nd.

AUSTRIA

Tradition in Austria: Around the 6th of January (The festival of the Twelfth Night, Epiphany), the "Sternsinger" ("star singers", Epiphany) walk from door to door in all villages and towns of Austria. They normally consist of four children (three kings and a star-person) and an adult to accompany them. They sing a little song about how they are really excited that Jesus was born, bless the house and its inhabitants for the new year and collect a bit of money for a charity, which changes every year. The custom is organised by the "Jungschar", a Catholic youth organisation.

The 6th of January is also one of the "Raunächte", in which Perchten are gathering for nightly rituals in Bavaria, Salzburg, Eastern Tyrol and the Salzkammergut. These traditions are all concerned with fertility rites and the winter Sonnenwende (21st of December). For details, see "December".

SWITZERLAND

Hello from Switzerland. We ate at the office a "galette des roi" this morning and my collegue became the queen smile emoticon A tradition here which I knew from France but not from my home country Germany.

SPAIN
In Spain the 5th of January kid watch the three kings paradise in the streets of your village or city and go to bed early, before go to bed they put the shoes in the living room, with a plate with biscuits and milk for the kings and carrots for the camels the 6th we open the presents eat a ROSCO (typical Christmas dessert) and at lunch time we visit our families and have lunch together.

Roscon de Reyes - History
Roscon de Reyes - Recipe

POLAND
We love Los Reyes parade, especially when they threw candies at the crowd! In Venezuela (hubby's country) they also throw coal at people.  We're celebrating Three Wise Men in Poznan, we even found the cake in Carrefour, but honestly it looks nothing like the original Spanish cake frown emoticon apparently there's a little figure inside.