Tres Reis
The Christmas holidays are protracted in Spain, with the official start on December 22 when the Christmas lottery (el Gordo) winners are drawn, and ending with the Three Kings on January 6. On the night of the 5th the Cavalcada de los Reis - the parade of the kings - makes it way through the city of Barcelona from the port, where the kings are said to arrive by boat. It is the traditional gift-giving holiday, and a special street market (fira) stays open until 3am for last-minute gift buying. Most of the stalls sell junky toys and trickets, aimed at young children. Candy stalls were also plentiful - the scatalogical theme emerged again in the sweets:
We didn't get into position early enough to see much of the parade. It's common for families to bring their ladder outside for better viewing - I didn't get the shot, but after the parade passed us, we saw two kids (younger than Henry) tasked with carrying their family's ladder back to the house!
It is traditional to eat tortell de reis, a donut-shaped cake that contains a small ceramic king and a bean. Whoever gets the king is, well, the king, and gets to wear the paper crown that comes on the cake.
Whoever gets the bean has to pay for the cake. Mad got the bean, though I'm not sure it counts because we didn't discover it until the next day.
