Melchior Caspar and Balthazar Last night they returned to take their magic to the streets of downtown Santa Cruz of Tenerife with the return of the traditional parade in the capital, after two years in which the restrictions imposed by the pandemic forced its cancellation and the celebration, instead, of five small parades through the five districts of the municipality. This year, only Anaga has maintained its own royal promenade, given the special geographical conditions of the towns in the massif.
With the restrictions eliminated, yesterday images so typical of this day were seen again, such as the chairs placed very early in some of the points through which the parade would pass, to be able to see Their Majesties of the East in the front row, who returned to the center of the city with a parade full of light and colorful characters and articulated puppets.
Thousands of children waited expectantly along the route, entire families filling the sidewalks, flower beds and walls, fathers and mothers with cameras in hand and children on their shoulders to be able to see the Three Wise Men in the crowd, who once again arrived at the stadium by helicopter. Heliodoro Rodríguez López, who also recovered his traditional show for this day, which was attended by some 17,500 people. And, according to City Council estimates, it is estimated that close to 100,000 saw the parade.
And it is that, after two years living a night of Kings contained and limited to the home, there was a great desire and illusion kept to return to normality and to be able to live on the street such a beautiful day for children and parents, a day to celebrate and meet again with friends and enjoy all the usual activities and traditions of such a special day.
Minutes after 7:00 p.m., the parade started from Avenida Bélgica to the applause of the attendees, who crowded at this point of the journey. A procession in which 12 floats and more than a thousand characters and extras participated, and which started the march with the first of the floats with live music at the head, asking the children “Who’s coming that night?”
The procession passed in a lively way, without gaps or too fast, interspersed with the colorful floats of lights of different themes, with convertible cars and an endless number of costumed extras, animated, fantastic or nightmare characters, and even a small mechanized elephant and merry-go-round. The large articulated or inflatable puppets that recreated a multitude of animals and characters taken from the world of fantasy were especially striking. There was only one small mishap with the second of the floats with live music which, at least at the beginning of the procession, had some problems with the sound and you couldn’t hear anything they played.
But the madness would obviously arrive with the floats of Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar, who on shooting stars greeted the children effusively, carrying behind all the gifts that they would distribute this past night.
The pages of the three Wise Men distributed by hand a total of 2,500 kilos of gluten-free candies, and of them, in addition, 500 kilos without sugar. Although some of the candies flew over the public again, as was done years ago, to reach the large number of attendees who gathered at some points. As novelties, a fence was placed in the areas where a greater number of people were concentrated. In addition, the parade had an area reserved for people with reduced mobility, as well as a silent section that ran between Numancia and El Pilar streets.
Closing the procession were the firefighters and, as usual, the charcoal burner’s float, which received all the boos and whistles of the night. The journey ended in the Plaza de la Candelaria, at 9:30 p.m., with the traditional act of adoration of the Child Jesus.
