La versión en español está después de la versión en inglés.
I had hoped to share this post much earlier in the day, but time simply slipped away from me and it’s now nearly 8 p.m. Monday is Three Kings Day which means, traditionally, the Parade of the Three Kings would occur today, Sunday. However, heavy rain was predicted to begin this evening (and it has just begun) so the parade was moved up a day to Saturday.
“The parade” (there were actually five to cover different sections of the city) began at 5 p.m. and ended at 9:30, more or less. The primary parade came right through our neighborhood more than halfway along the route, so we just had to walk out the door to join the crowds. The end of the parade route was in front of our hardware store at the corner of an old city wall. Then the kings left their respective floats and climbed into three horse-drawn carriages to be taken further along to meet the baby Jesus. Just like in the bible, no?
As I mentioned, there were five different parades. Ours, the primary parade, had 15 floats, three marching bands, and a royal guard (of Roman soldiers) for each of the three wise men. This is the 100th anniversary of the first-ever Three Kings parade in Córdoba. That first one had the aim of distributing toys and clothes to needy children. This year, stuffed animals, a total of 17 tons of candy, including more than 135,000 gummy worms, were thrown to onlookers.
When we lived in Seville, hard candy was thrown from the floats. There were lots of injuries. Our last time at the Seville parade, we went from Fuengirola with our friend Judyshannon. An obnoxious teenager threw something intentionally hard and it hit a man in the face, broke his glasses, and cut his nose. Córdoba specifies that the packages “must not represent any risk to people when thrown from the floats”. In addition, the raw material must contain a “gluten-free” certificate, so that they are suitable for coeliacs. Times are changing!
I won’t go into the list of candy varieties, but there were jelly beans, too! And I did not have a single one. Today, it’s just three short videos of some of my favorite bits. Next time, there will be photos (but not all 312).
Tenía la esperanza de compartir este post mucho antes, pero el tiempo simplemente se me escapó y ya son casi las 20:00. El lunes es el Día de los Reyes Magos, lo que significa que, tradicionalmente, la Cabalgata de los Reyes Magos se llevaría a cabo hoy, domingo. Sin embargo, se pronosticó que comenzaría una fuerte lluvia esta noche (y acaba de comenzar), por lo que la cabalgata se adelantó un día al sábado.
“La cabalgata” (en realidad hubo cinco para cubrir diferentes secciones de la ciudad) comenzó a las 17:00 y terminó a las 21:30, más o menos. La cabalgata principal pasó por nuestro vecindario más de la mitad de la ruta, por lo que solo tuvimos que salir por la puerta para unirnos a la multitud. El final de la ruta de la cabalgata fue frente a nuestra ferretería en la esquina de una antigua muralla de la ciudad. Luego, los reyes dejaron sus respectivas carrozas y subieron a tres carruajes tirados por caballos para ser llevados más adelante para encontrarse con el niño Jesús. Tal como en la Biblia, ¿no?
Como mencioné, hubo cinco cabalgatas diferentes. EspañolLa nuestra, la principal, contaba con 15 carrozas, tres bandas de música y una guardia real (de soldados romanos) por cada uno de los Reyes Magos. Se cumplen 100 años de la primera cabalgata de Reyes Magos en Córdoba, que tuvo como objetivo repartir juguetes y ropa a niños necesitados. Este año se lanzaron peluches, un total de 17 toneladas de caramelos, entre los que había más de 135.000 gominolas.
Cuando vivíamos en Sevilla, se lanzaban caramelos duros desde las carrozas. Hubo muchos heridos. La última vez que fuimos a la cabalgata de Sevilla, fuimos desde Fuengirola con nuestra amiga Judyshannon. Un adolescente desagradable lanzó algo intencionadamente duro y le dio en la cara a un hombre, le rompió las gafas y le cortó la nariz. Córdoba especifica que los paquetes “no deben representar ningún riesgo para las personas al ser lanzados desde las carrozas”. Además, la materia prima debe contener un certificado “sin gluten”, para que sean aptos para celíacos. ¡Los tiempos están cambiando!
No voy a entrar en la lista de variedades de dulces, pero también había gominolas. Y no tenía ni una. Hoy, solo son tres videos cortos de algunos de mis dulces favoritos. La próxima vez, habrá fotos (pero no las 312).
Not sure which bits of the Bible refer to Portuguese Men’o’War or twirling green leaf-women, but they look faboo! Jx
Jon:
I even read in the news that the parade depicts bible stories. I was at a loss as to the connection of much of it (but I’m not complaining). I assumed the twirling green leaf women depicted the Tree of Life.
Fave part is the clean up 🧹
Jssw:
We were tired and went upstairs just as they rolled in. I love it, too.
Ah yes, the biblical jellyfish and green fairies… I think from the old testament was it? Lol. Really beautiful.
Kathleen:
Yeah, I wondered about some of those biblical connections. Minions might not be much of a stretch.
I like those Vegetation Virgins, or whichever other Biblical characters they were supposed to be, lol!
Debra>
There were women in gauzy gowns juggling glowing balls. Hmmm. SG called them the vestal virgins. Characters from Avatar were there as well. The holy rollers must have been rolling at the sights,
Such fun; love the lights and colors and if those are jellyfish, love them too!
Bob:
It was beautiful and, yes, those were jellyfish.
Such joys on your doorstep.
David:
It’s wonderful to be living right in the centre.
LOVE the jellyfish balloons, though like everyone else here, I don’t get the connection to Jeebus! The twirling green fairies are a puzzle too. But at least no one was throwing tomatoes, eggs or mud balls like at other recent Spanish events!
Tundra Bunny:
Yeah, there was a lot of stretching of the biblical theme (well complete disconnection). I think the twirling green fairies may have been the Tree of Life, but I could be completely wrong about that.
Wow, the most I’ve ever done for Three Kings is a cake with a bean in it. You get the bean, you’re crowned with a paper crown, King for the day.
No parades and floats! This is great.
Boud
Boud:
I love a good Roscón de Reyes cake. A nearby bakery had beautiful personal-size ones, but I managed to restrain myself.
Wow, what a blast! So cool that they celebrated you moving to Córdoba… I mean… that they celebrated the 100th year! 😉 ¡Feliz (almost) día de los Reyes!
Judy C:
Thanks to the rain and rescheduling, this has been an especially long-feeling holiday.
Macy’s could learn a thing or two from Cordoba’s parade.
Kirk:
But I was disappointed our great-niece wasn’t here with her high school marching band. They were just in NYC.
I’m hoping to make a king’s cake today. I’m fresh out of jellyfish.
Walt the Fourth:
Maybe some gula instead. I’ve been craving a bit of king’s cake, but all that sugar!
Three kings coming to see a newborn of an alleged virgin sounds doubtful. In those days, sounds more likely for Mary to be stoned by the religious community that didn’t see this angel conversation
Adam:
Apparently the virgin birth was only first mentioned in that context 55 years after Jesus’s death. During his lifetime, he was thought to be the son of Joseph. I’ve read also that the original Hebrew meant a “young woman of child-bearing age” (not a virgin), and it didn’t change to “virgin” until the Greek translation from Hebrew. But I’m not saying a word… 😉
Yes. The connection between the parade and the sweet baby Jesus lying in a manger seems tenuous at best but who cares? That is one fine parade. The jellyfishy ones are just unbelievably gorgeous and I do very much like the green tree ladies. I have to say that the Spanish obviously know how to throw a parade.
M.Moon
Ms. Moon:
The parade was so much fun and seemingly so well organized. We could see the jellyfish coming from a distance (they basically led off the parade) and established the magic. And, oh, those green tree ladies were so cool.
How amazing it must be to have all of this at your doorstep!
Michael:
It was so exciting and made us even happier to have chosen this place to live.
I’m not sure what jelly fish have to do with Epiphany, but you may remember the Christmas lights display I saw at Thanksgiving included jelly fish, too! (for whatever reason) They’re beautiful, though!
Kelly:
Do you suppose there’s a Newer Testament we haven’t been told about?
Oh, and here I get to see the jellyfish in action! Woo hoo!
That’s harsh, throwing candy to injure people. Yeesh.
Steve:
There was always some bratty, macho teen throwing candy — especially in Fuengirola. I was so glad when they switched to gummy candies only. At the time in Seville, they were tossing plastic toys out as well. A toy truck hit the guy hard in the face. I was tempted to climb up and pull the brat off the float.