#januarysix

Tropical sun ignites the pavement as beads of sweat outnumber the beads on their crowns and slide down their foreheads. But they wave to the cheering crowds and keep moving across the pavement because the January heat on a clear day in Puerto Rico doesn’t stop Los Reyes Magos, or the Three Kings, from completing their annual journey.

About 25,000 people gather in Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico, on January 6 each year to watch the Three Kings parade down the streets, many of them joining the parade dressed as ancient Middle Eastern shepherds in robes and carrying staffs.

After the parade, the smell of Pinchos and Mofongo hang in the hot air as people shield their eyes to watch the Kings conduct a Christmas mass in the town plaza.

“The tradition is very, very strong here,” said Marcos Rivera, who has been attending the festival for about three years. “Because of this, this is like the Bethlehem of Puerto Rico.”

Dressed as a shepherd, a Three Kings Museum guide named Joshua Rivera explained how a Spanish Catholic priest brought the holiday to the island in 1883. The priest made it a Christmas tradition to honor the Wise Men, and since then that celebration has grown and permanently imprinted itself on Puerto Rican culture.

The Kings themselves have transformed into international celebrities, touring Central and South America and even visiting the Catholic pope, Rivera explained.

The church chooses the men to represent the Three Kings through a process of evaluation, looking for upstanding citizens capable of mentally and spiritually transforming themselves to act in such a sacred role, Rivera said. Once they’re chosen they can decide for themselves how long they want to keep the position, but the current Three Kings have each participated for more than 15 years.

“They’re basically veteran Wise Men,” Rivera said grinning proudly.

On the eve of January 6, children in Puerto Rico gather grass in shoeboxes for the Three Kings’ camels, who magically appear in the middle of the night to chew on the grass while the Wise Men award the well-behaved children with gifts and candy. Later in the day, 1,000s of people travel to Juana Diaz to watch the Three Kings parade through the streets.

After the parade and the mass, people linger in the plaza for the rest of the afternoon, eating fried food and fresh fruit smoothies at fair-like vendors and carousing giant tents lined with people selling everything from hand-made leather accessories to crafted crosses.

“It started as something very small and was only for us in our town, and then the other towns started to come,” said Jeann Maldonado, who has attended the Three Kings Day festival in Juana Diaz ever since she was a child.

Other cultures honor the wealthy kings who traveled across the desert to visit the baby Christian Messiah on the day of his birth, but the Three Kings Festival is a unique tradition Puerto Ricans call their own.

“It’s only here in Puerto Rico,” Maldonado said. “No other town has it.”