A Place Both Wonderful and Strange – Tash & Ricki's Career Break Travels

And we thought the silly season was behind us! Nope, turns out Spain had one more Christmas card up it’s sleeve this week. This came in the form of Twelfth Night and Epiphany. I had heard these terms before, but it wasn’t until after we arrived that we realised they are actually quite a big deal here, on a par with Christmas Eve/Day itself. As a Christmas lover, this was great news to me!

Twelfth Night, known as “Noche de Reyes”, falls on the last night of the Twelve Days of Christmas (5th January). While the UK tradition is to tidy away the Christmas decorations on or before this date, in Spain, celebrations are still in full swing.

“Noche de Reyes” translates literally to English as “King’s Night”. I’m used to seeing the three wise men/magii/kings as B-list characters in the Nativity story. Roles for the children trusted enough with lines but not showy enough to be Mary, Joseph or Gabriel! Here though, they are treated with much more reverence and are Santa Claus-like figures. I’ve even read that Spanish children have a favourite of the three, and write wish lists to them. Some pub quiz fodder here – if you want to go one up on naming the gifts they brought, their names are Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar.

So revered are the Three Kings in fact, that they have their own parade, the “Cabalgata de Reyes”. And as it turns out, Málaga has one of the most impressive in Andalusia. So on Friday night, we headed into town to stake out a vantage point. 

Previous parade experiences, and uncertainty about specific route timings, may have caused us to overestimate how early we needed to arrive. At least there was entertainment for the last 15 minutes of our hour plus wait in the form of a choir who set up on the balcony of a nearby hotel. Turns out this year I’m not making it until 1st November before hearing  “All I Want for Christmas”. At least this version was in Spanish!

The parade itself was entertaining, if not as traditionally festive as I’d imagined. Unless I missed the bit of the Nativity where the Simpsons or Abba on rollerskates show up. But it was good fun and worth going. And I don’t just say that because of the sweets…

Part of the King’s gifts to the children is an abundance of sweets. If the local paper is correct, about 20,500 tonnes (or my annual pick and mix consumption!) are thrown from the floats to the spectators. It was equal measures entertaining and terrifying being pelted with small, sugary projectiles - I’m not sure boiled sweets were the best offering of choice!

On to Epiphany / Three King’s Day which is celebrated the next day. Just as Twelfth Night finishes on a sweet note, so too begins King’s Day. I’m always happy to take my foodie cue from local tradition, especially when it involves cake for breakfast! We started our day with a mini Roscón de Reyes. This cream filled pastry ring is topped with candied fruit or sweets to resemble jewels. Typically it contains a small figurine, and a dried bean. Whoever finds the former in their piece gets to wear a gold paper crown and be “King for the day”. Meanwhile whoever finds the bean has to buy next year’s cake. Trip to the dentist optional depending on how you find these additions… Alas our budget supermarket version didn’t extend to the extra ingredients. 

Roast lamb is one of the traditional main meals on King’s Day and we ended up trying lamb neck for the first time. Not as a result of mis-translation (those will inevitably come), but just limited options in the butcher. 

Typically Spanish children get more presents on King’s Day, in a shoebox left out for the Kings. Funnily enough, Ricki wasn’t on board with this further round of gift giving though. I’ll make do with memories instead! 

So less than a week into our travels and we had already experienced one festival. Not bad considering this one was unplanned on our part. Given I saw decorations being stripped from various buildings yesterday, I think we can safely now say Christmas 2023 is complete. November/December 2024 is still uncharted territory for us though. Perhaps I should see what festivities we can line up for later!

Our first sporting event has also been ticked off. Ricki fancied lending his support to Málaga’s local team, Málaga CF, in a game against Real Sociedad.

Saying no didn’t seem in the spirit of this year, plus the only games I have ever been to before have been to see Aberdeen FC. Perhaps this would be considerably more exciting, so I opted to go along. Unfortunately not so in terms of the game itself. Real Sociedad secured a single goal victory, which I even missed, being caught in a refreshments queue. But at least the La Rosaleda Stadium was much less cold/damp than Pittodrie. It was great to get caught up in the supporter atmosphere though, and courtesy of crowd feedback to the ref/Real Sociedad players, I came away with some colourful phrases which could come in handy should anyone cross me here!

Looking forward now to some non-football related sightseeing this week!