The 6th January, the feast of Epiphany when the three Magi arrived bearing gifts for the infant Jesus, has special significance here. It’s the day when children traditionally receive their presents - from the Magi instead of Santa Claus – and every city, town, and even many villages stage a Cabalgata, a carnival procession with colourful decorated floats.
In the cities and large towns the parades are stunning, full
of noise and drama. There will be bands
and dancers, trapeze artists, jugglers and acrobats, as well as a large number
of floats – one for each of the Magi (Caspar, Balthazar and Melchior) and their
pages or attendants, as well as floats representing all manner of things, often
weird and wonderful with little relevance to the Christmas story. As the floats go by, their occupants throw
handfuls of sweets to the watching crowds.
This winter Spain has been buffeted by storms. “Eleanor” is the latest to sweep through
bringing snow and freezing conditions.
In an effort to avoid the worst of the weather, most places staged their
Cabalgata on the 5th instead of the 6th January. Rodalquilar, although it’s such a tiny
village, once again had its own Cabalgata on the 5th – just one
float with all three wise men squeezed in together.
This year the Cabalgata has also been troubled with
controversy as well as the weather. It
began with the news that a float in Madrid intended to have a drag queen as one
of its Magi. This was declared
irreligious by the political right. It
was pointed out in return that many floats and parades have bizarre fictional
characters, e.g. a robot from Star Wars, who have no connection whatsoever
to Christianity or to the Christmas story.
Also, most “Balthazars” across Spain are white men blacked-up, surely far
more offensive and false!
As for me, I have never come across any place in the Bible
where we are told who the Magi were; what they looked like, what their names
were, or where they came from. As far as
I can remember, all we read is that “wise men from the East” came bearing
gifts. So they could have been Chinese astronomers,
or Tibetan monks looking for the new Dalai Lama!
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