Tomorrow, January 5, is a magical night and perhaps the most anticipated of the entire year by adults and children because everyone shares the same illusion: the arrival of Their Majesties from the East.
In some municipalities they will do it early in the morning, as is the case of La Guancha, where they will arrive at 11:00 a.m. to continue with the Royal Caravan that will bring Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar to the neighborhoods so that all the boys and girls can greet them. close to home.
The itinerary includes the towns of Santa Catalina, Santo Domingo, Las Cucharas, Las Montañetas, El Pinalete, La Guancha de Abajo, El Risco, El Farrobo and La Asomada.
The magical night will conclude with the Three Kings Parade, starting at 6:00 p.m., and this year it will repeat last year’s route through Hipólito Sinforiano Avenue and La Alhóndiga Street, until reaching the Plaza de la Iglesia. As is traditional, the Kings will get off their floats and participate in the emotional reception that the town of La Guancha prepares for them every year, from the stage of the square.
They will arrive in Los Realejos later, around 5:30 p.m. at the Plaza de La Cruz Santa. There the mayor, Adolfo González, will give them the ‘magic key’ that will allow them to open the homes of the municipality. One hour later the delegation will gather on Calle Reyes Católicos in Realejo Alto to begin the route from Avenida de los Remedios and continue through Tres de Mayo, Las Cañitas, Calle San Agustín, La Alhóndiga, to Realejo Bajo, Barroso and finish. the journey to Tigaiga, where the usual representation of the Adoration of the Three Wise Men to the Child Jesus will take place.
In the case of La Orotava they will do it early in the afternoon, from 3:00 p.m., to be able to visit all the neighborhoods of the municipality and for this Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar are already finalizing all the preparations to live a day that will also be for them. It is unique even though they have been participating in the Parade for many years.
Baltasar has been coming as a wizard king to the Villa for 22 years, where he landed by chance. It was the artistic director Sergio García who proposed it and he did not hesitate. And although his house is in Santa Cruz, every January 5 he moves to the northern municipality with the same excitement and enthusiasm that he did for the first time. “Seeing the surprised and happy faces of the boys and girls and the love they express makes you give yourself completely,” he emphasizes.
The dark one is perhaps the most magical and mysterious king and also the closest. Since he doesn’t have a beard, he always looks young and the little ones can approach him without that distance and respect that his peers impose. Many of them went to see him as teenagers and today they bring their children to him. “There are entire families,” he points out.
Clothing is provided by the organizers. “They are three very beautiful and colorful layers and I feel happy wearing them,” she confesses.
With Melchor and Gaspar they are a true team. “We are more than that, we are an institution,” he jokes, because his teammates have been going to the Villa even longer than he has. “I’m the newest,” he repeats.
“It is a special sensation that you feel because we already have a very great complicity, there are many years sharing enthusiasm, joy and giving everything. “It’s a wonderful day, I think I have a better time than the children,” she says.
In these more than two decades he has collected hundreds of anecdotes and although it is impossible to process them all, there are others that will always remain in his memory. One of the most clever was a child who had forgotten the letter and asked if he could send it to him by WhatsApp.
There are also very emotional ones, like what happened a couple of years ago when a girl of about 30 years old approached him, confessed that he had always been her favorite king and that is why she dared to ask him to cure her sister of cancer.
“The following year she came to the Parade accompanied by her sister, who was wearing a headscarf, and she thanked me for having fulfilled her wish,” she says.
There are many neighbors who claim that he is the king who brings the most gifts. He cannot confirm it. “But the one who threw the most candy and the one who gave out the most enthusiasm, surely yes,” he says proudly.
But if there is something exciting, it is the letters that the little ones give him and that he cannot always read in their entirety because there are so many. “They come decorated with buttons, drawings, full of colors, and accompanied by small gifts. They have given me everything from actimel to chocolates, the work they put into it is spectacular,” she says.
On such a magical night, he also always makes a special wish from Their Majesties: “To have good health to continue giving hope and share it with the neighbors of La Orotava.” And in these last 22 years they have not failed him.
In Garachico, Mary and Joseph escape to receive Jesus before the arrival of Their Majesties
If the Garachico parade is characterized by something, it is the care taken in all the details in its staging. Prior to the entrance of her Majesties to the roundabout of San Francisco, the scene takes place in which Mary and Joseph escape to receive Jesus.
And there, to the tune of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar will make their epic entrance to the San Francisco roundabout. Lights, music, thousands of sparklers, fire, confetti and more than a hundred extras will make the Garachico heritage complex the perfect setting to receive the Kings of the East as they deserve. Upon arrival they will give their traditional message and the distribution of gifts will begin on the most magical night of the year.
Previously, they will have visited Las Cruces and San Pedro de Daute, from where they will go down the sinuous curves of this neighborhood that will be adorned by the traditional fire zorocos that announce their arrival to the town. From there they will visit the hermitage of Los Reyes in the neighborhood of the same name and will go down to the Old Pier to be received by King Herod’s soldiers and escorted to the castle of San Miguel. At that point they will receive instructions from the Roman king to later take the traditional tour of the historic center.
